my sunday dinners

Kitchen Soundtrack

2012-02-17T22:04:00.000-05:00

I use music to motivate me in all kinds of different ways. For example, I took up running a few years ago so I am always on the look out for good cardio songs. And in the mornings during my very short commute I tend to listen to CBC Radio Two because Julie Nesrallah's voice and her mix of 'classic classical' tunes is so soothing and calming after the rush and bustle of getting two little boys out the door for the day. I listen to a lot of classical music when I'm cooking too, but I tend to mix things up a bit depending on my mood and (don't laugh) what I'm cooking. So without further ado (not that you asked) I present my kitchen soundtrack.

1. Pretty Flowers - Steve Martin

It features a banjo. And Dolly Parton. Need I say more? Get out your ingredients, find all of the bowls and spoons and spatulas you need, preheat the oven and by the time you're finished, you'll be humming this song.

2. Settle My Accounts with You - Matthew Barber
I like this song because it suits so many moods. The version I usually listen to is more suited to running; the video I've linked here is much more mellow. A great stirring song. As in 'simmer over medium low heat stirring constantly for 5 minutes'.

3. Casual Viewin' - 54-40

I have a huge crush on 54-40. My brother used to listen to them all the time when we were in high school so this is a band I learned to like listening to them muffled through my bedroom wall. Chopping vegetables always goes faster to a good beat.

Note - the next four videos refused to embed themselves into my post. Life is too short for me to try and figure out why so I just linked them through the titles. Videos will open in a new window.

4. Hello - Martin Solveig and Dragonette
This is another good song for when you have to complete a repetitive task. Like peeling a big pile of potatoes. Just be careful - you will be dancing by the end of this song. Don't stab yourself with a paring knife on my account. Safety first!

5. Wouldn't It Be Loverly - Julie Andrews (My Fair Lady)
I would be remiss if I didn't include at least one tune from Broadway. This track tends to enter the rotation when I'm making soup or roast chicken or macaroni and cheese. It just seems to go well with comfort food dishes.

6. Into Action - Tim Armstrong
This song will always be, for me, a Summer kitchen song. It's one of those tunes that immediately transports me back to a particular time and place. This track was on a friend's iPod up at the cottage, playing out on the deck while I was in the kitchen making potato salad. The first few times I heard it was through a screen door. No matter. Whenever I crave potato salad I also crave 'Into Action'.

7. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
This is my favourite piece of classical music and one that I love to have on in the kitchen when I'm making a dish I haven't made before and I need to focus. It provides a nice bit of background noise without being too distracting.

The last couple of songs are the ones I use to motivate me to clean up the kitchen. Yes, David usually does most of the dirty work but he isn't always around when my urge to bake/cook strikes so I am left to face the music (er - mess) I've managed to accumulate in the kitchen myself.

8. (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) (I Want You To) - Weezer
So if you happen to wander into the kitchen and I'm up to my elbows in suds and you're wondering if I want you to grab a dish towel and help? I want you to.

9.Tightrope - Janelle Monae
I know it's also the backdrop for a car ad so it's kind of everywhere, but this song is so infectious. And who says you can't dance at the sink? Water drumming with wooden spoons is the new air guitar.

So that's it. A few of the songs that I currently have cued up on my kitchen play list.

Oven Baked Ribs

2012-02-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

I actually thought I had already written this post. Could have sworn I had written it. But I haven't. I've been meaning to, since we ate these ribs for Sunday dinner at least a week ago. They were so good. I served them with scalloped potatoes (that were only average) and corn bread (which was fantastic, as usual). I dry rubbed them and sauced them. They made the house smell like a warm Southern Sunday afternoon. While they were cooking I listened to Dan Mangan over and over again. It was a good day.

How could I ever resist a recipe with a title like 'Oven-Baked Ribs with Maple Barbecue Sauce'? We often make ribs in the Summer but baking them in the oven might be my new favourite way to enjoy this particular treat. I had been thinking about ribs all week and had them on my grocery list, then in a happy coincidence they were on sale at my local butcher counter. I love it when that happens.

These ribs are both rubbed and sauced. Neither step is difficult. Start with some ribs. I had two racks of pork side ribs. I put together the rub in a small bowl (paprika, sugar, salt, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, oregano) then..well, rubbed the spices into the ribs. I was a bit worried that the rub might be too spicy (particularly for the kids) but I decided that the sweet sauce would balance the heat. Then all I had to do was put them in the oven to bake. I used my turkey rack / roaster and it worked just fine.

The BBQ sauce is also pretty easy to put together: ketchup, cider vinegar, maple syrup, wooster sauce and chili powder. Muck it all together in a small saucepan, bring it to a boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Slap it on your ribs during the last 10 minutes of cooking. What made your kitchen smell really good will now make your kitchen smell really, really good.

I wish the scalloped potatoes I made to go with these ribs had been thicker and creamier. (That's what happens when you use 1% milk...) I love the combination of ribs and scalloped potatoes. I have no idea why. I have a very vague memory of attending a spare-rib supper sponsored by the Legion in the small town where I grew up years and years ago. Maybe that menu featured scalloped potatoes? I know there were ribs. And something called pigs tails which probably really were pigs tails, now that I think about it. I always just assumed they were joking when they passed the pigs tails.

We knew the boys would like the taste of these (they seem to really be liking pork lately) but not the idea of gnawing meat off of a bone. So yes, we cut their portions off the rib for them. The sauce is every boy's dream - ketchup and maple syrup? Yes please! And just as I had thought, there was a slight heat to the meat but the sweet sauce cut the hot so you noticed the rub but not in a bad way. A great way to do ribs in the Winter.

Oven-Baked Ribs with Maple Barbecue Sauce - from Canadian Living

1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
3 lb pork back or side ribs

Maple Barbecue Sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp wooster sauce
1 tsp chili powder

Combine paprika through oregano in small bowl. Rub all over ribs. Place ribs on rack in roasting pan. Roast in 425 degree oven for 45 minutes, turning once. Pour off fat.

For sauce: Meanwhile, combine ketchup through chili powder in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Brush all over ribs, roast until sticky, about 10 minutes.

Clam Chowder

2012-02-08T18:22:00.001-05:00

While it hasn't been a particularly cold Winter it is one of the dampest I can remember. Damp, wet cold is so much worse than it's-been-snowing-for-months-and-there's-an-arctic-chill-in-the-air cold. Damp cold feels colder than it actually is and makes you feel less than Canadian when you realize it's only -1 and yet you're complaining about how so, so cold it is.

But really I'm here to talk about chowder. Clam chowder to be precise, which is just as good on a cold, damp day as it is on a cold snowy one. Did you know that January is National Soup Month? Not sure when this was decided or by whom but I'm always up to make soup. It happens to be one of my favourite things to do on the weekend. (The excitement this breeds around the house, as you can imagine, is palpable.)

Clam chowder is one of those soups that I only crave once or maybe twice a year. I'll give in to this craving by buying a can of something processed at the grocery store and will be thoroughly disappointed in the results. This year when the craving hit I decided to do what I should have done years ago and make my own chowder. I used a recipe from Bon Appetit for Quick New England Clam and Corn Chowder. I was very pleased with this soup. Of course the first ingredient is bacon (6 thick slices, to be precise) so I was already on-side from step one.

This clam chowder uses canned clams which aren't hard to come by if you know where to look (i.e. in the aisle with canned salmon, tuna, etc.). Canned clams threw David for a bit when he saw them on the grocery list. Although to be honest much about my grocery list throws him off. We spend a lot of time texting when he is at the grocery store. Pictures are exchanged to identify troublesome fruits and vegetables masquerading under pseudonyms he doesn't recognize. I also sometimes add 'helpful' stream of consciousness side-notes that need explaining. Lately we've taken to doing a run-down of the grocery list before he leaves the house so he can ask questions or get clarification about things. Like parsnips. He can never remember what parsnips are, so now I just write 'white carrots' on the list. Don't get him started on the whole rutabaga versus turnip thing either. The meat section is just as dangerous since there seems to be five hundred different ways to describe what are in fact five basic cuts of beef.

All this to say David was very proud of himself that he managed to pull off canned clams without having to text me or take pictures of various cans of fish and send them to me for approval. (We're those people in the grocery store who you wonder about because they seem to be having an intense exchange with someone on their cell phone or taking seemingly random pictures of food.)

The clams and juice (wherever you happen to find them) are combined with lots of good stuff to make this quick chowder - onion, carrot, rosemary, cubed potato and corn. Plus whole milk. Often when making soup I'll substitute 2% milk when whole milk is called for but not for clam chowder. Some soups need (deserve?) the full fat flavour of whole milk to be authentic. Clam chowder is one of them. So.

Slice up the bacon and fry it in your pot until it is crisp then remove it and set aside. You're going to use the bacon fat to sauté your onions, carrots and herbs plus the crisp bacon bits are going to get scattered overtop of your finished chowder. Some flour is added to the pot of sautéed vegetables/herbs before you pour in the milk (I assume to thicken your broth). In go the clams, the potato chunks and the corn. Simmer, simmer, simmer until the potatoes are tender which is about ten minutes. Ladle your soup into bowls and don't forget to garnish with the reserved bacon!

Great fresh from the pot and great warmed up the next day. A nice, simple chowder recipe that is so much better than heating up something from a can.

New England Clam Chowder from Epicurious

Ingredients

6 thick bacon slices, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped

2 large carrots, peeled, chopped

1 1/4 teaspoons dried thyme

3/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

4 cups whole milk

1 8-ounce unpeeled white-skinned potato, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 6 1/2-ounce cans chopped clams in juice

1 8 3/4-ounce can corn kernels, drained

Chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Cook bacon in large saucepan over medium heat until crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour out all but 3 tablespoons drippings from pan. Add next 4 ingredients to pan; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over; stir 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add milk to pan, stirring constantly. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium and cook until slightly thickened, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes, clams with juice, and drained corn. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until potatoes are tender, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide soup among bowls, sprinkle with bacon and parsley, and serve.

What we ate for Christmas - Christmas morning

2012-01-24T20:56:00.002-05:00

Christmas morning is one of my favourite mornings of the year. After the presents have been opened and everybody is basking in the glow of new toys, books and other diversions, I make pancakes for the kids and David puts on a pot of coffee. As much as I like making pancakes for the kiddos each December 25th they aren't my idea of the perfect Christmas morning breakfast. Last year I bought a stollen for the grown-ups but this year I really wanted something home-made. (Christmas morning seems to demand home-made.) While flipping through recipe books and scouring the Internet in the weeks leading up to Christmas I toyed with the idea of making stollen myself but something nagged at me that this wasn't the satisfying Christmas breakfast I was seeking. Then I found it. Or rather, we found it, as I had roped David into my quest: yeasted coffee cake with sweet cream cheese filling. Yes please!

This isn't a recipe for those who seek instant gratification (like me). There are a lot of steps, and there's waiting because yeast is involved (it's right there in the recipe title). Luckily David took several days off before Christmas so this was a team effort (and I kind of saddled him with the boring bits I didn't want to deal with). To make this coffee cake you first make the dough, then the sweet cheese filling. There is also a streusel to put together and an egg wash. (I forgot about the egg wash step and trust me, the cake ate just fine.) We started in the morning and by mid-afternoon had two very large cakes, which we baked then froze. I was amazed at how large the cakes were - amazed and, once I had a taste, delighted because we were going to be eating delicious coffee cake for most of the holidays. The cakes re-heated from the freezer very well. We paired ours with the Kona coffee I bought David for Christmas from Hawaii. This recipe is definitely going on my Christmas baking traditions list. It's from Cook's Illustrated, of course. I found it here.

Beef Tenderloin Mini Sandwiches Appetizer

2012-01-15T15:47:00.001-05:00

I am very behind in documenting all of my kitchen capers. We are now all fully back to reality, i.e. back to school and work which has taken some adjustment after an extended hiatus from 'normal'. Plus I keep coming up with ways to keep myself busy. For example last week I decided I *must* re-paint all of the wood work on our main floor. This stems from having laid a new cork floor in our library/dining room just before Christmas. One home improvement project seems to lead to another which leads to another... So this weekend I have caulked and cleaned and painted along with cooked.

I still have a few blog-worthy food items from 2011 to share before moving on to 2012. One of the last new dishes I tried in 2011 were these awesome beef tenderloin mini sandwiches:

These were an appetizer for our last family dinner of the Christmas season, which featured turkey. We love turkey but thought there was room for some red meat as a prelude to the main event. These are very easy to make and are do-able as a 'make-ahead' dish that you can assemble once you are ready to serve. They basically consist of a slice of baguette that is topped with lettuce, thin slices of beef tenderloin, a sour-cream-horseradish-dijon sauce, capers and shaved Parmesan cheese.

The sauce as called for below includes horseradish. I played it safe and didn't include the horseradish (I wasn't sure how many people might be put off by this ingredient). Next time I think I would definitely include it. I was worried it might be too hot with the horseradish (I've had some very pungent horseradish experiences!) but a small hit of horseradish would have made these little morsels even better, in my opinion. I also couldn't find watercress so just substituted some fresh leaf lettuce, which looked the part and is so mild I knew it wouldn't ruin the overall taste.

I think I cooked my beef about twice as long as called for in the original recipe, about 20-30 minutes. I'm not very confident when it comes to pan-frying meat, and I wanted to make sure I didn't make anyone sick with under-done beef! My thermapen was invaluable in preparing this dish - I kept it handy and made sure the beef got to medium-well in the centre before I took it off the heat. The slices from the end of the tenderloin were more well-done but that didn't stop them from being eaten. I cooked and sliced the beef ahead of time (and put the sauce together to chill) then took these ingredients, along with a fresh baguette, lettuce, cheese and capers with us to our hosts. To serve I sliced up the baguette, added some lettuce, layered on the beef (2 slices, very thin), dabbed with sauce/capers and then finished with a Parmesan curl. Mmmmm. Just thinking about these is making me hungry!

Seared Beef Tenderloin Mini Sandwiches - from Cooking Light

2/3 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 (1 1/2-pound) beef tenderloin, trimmed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups trimmed watercress (about 1 bunch)
1 (8-ounce) French bread baguette, cut diagonally into 16 slices
2 tablespoons capers
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shaved fresh Parmesan cheese

Combine first 4 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Cover and chill.

Secure beef at 2-inch intervals with twine. Sprinkle beef with pepper. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; coat pan with cooking spray. Add beef to pan; cook 15 minutes or until desired degree of doneness, turning frequently. Let stand 15 minutes. Cut into 16 slices. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Arrange watercress evenly on bread slices. Place 1 beef slice and about 1 tablespoon chilled sauce over each bread slice. Arrange capers and cheese evenly over sauce.

What we ate for Christmas - cookies

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

The boys love decorating a gingerbread house at Christmas but I, for all of my culinary aspirations and experiments, do not. I find it a fussy, unpleasant task that fills me with rage. Last year when I found myself getting out the glue gun in an effort to make our darn gingerbread house stay together (after four kinds of icing failed) I vowed never again. I felt bad banning the gingerbread house from our Christmas repertoire but not for long since my proposal to make gingerbread cookies instead - shaped ones that we can decorate and actually eat - went over very well. We never ate our gingerbread house creations (particularly those that I stuck together with toxic glue, obviously) so I wanted a recipe that would make some good looking and good tasting cookies. I turned to my trusty Joy of Cooking for this particular task knowing that on page 828 is a simple recipe for Gingerbread People that delivers both great looking and great tasting treats.

You need to be a little bit organized to make these cookies since the dough has to stand at room temperature for at least two hours before you can use it. I made our batch a day ahead and let it chill in the fridge and brought it back to room temperature before baking.

Gingerbread People - from The Joy of Cooking

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
6 tbsp butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest (I omitted this and the cookies were still tasty)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and egg on medium speed until well blended. Add the molasses and vanilla (lemon zest if using) and beat until well combined. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth. Divide the dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic and let stand at room temperature for 2-8 hours. Dough can be stored for 4 days but should be refrigerated; return to room temperature before using. (When I wrap my dough in plastic I tend to flatten the dough into disks rather than wrapping it as a ball. This makes it a bit easier to roll out later.)

When ready to bake, position rack in upper third of oven. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease cookie sheets.

Place 1 portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface. Lightly dust a rolling pin and roll the dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. (Mine was likely thicker. I'm not so good at being scant.) Add more flour as necessary to prevent dough from sticking.

Cut out the cookies using gingerbread boy or girl cutters. Or whatever strikes your fancy. I have a rather large collection of Christmas cookie cutters so we made gingerbread men, mittens, snowflakes, angels, reindeer and even hearts. (Because we heart Christmas, I assume. Patrick grabbed that one.) You can see by the shapes below that I have a large gingerbread man cutter but only a small gingerbread girl cutter. I think she might be left over from the late 90's when I attended a gazillion bridal showers. I always made up a cookie baking gift basket, and I tied a ginger-boy and girl cookie cutter to the ribbon sealing the package to give a sort of bride/groom vibe to the gift. This cutter may have been an extra, or I may have misplaced my gingerbread boy. Either way, after Christmas I scored a large gingerbread girl cookie cutter for the whopping price of 50 cents so next year watch out - all of our gingerbread people will be the same size. Not that anyone but anal-retentive me noticed (cared about?) the difference.

Your cookies will be quite thin, so transfer them to your cookie sheet using a spatula. (I have an actual dedicated-to-cookies-only spatula. See above re: anal-retentive.) Bake 7-10 minutes, rotating the sheet half-way through baking for even browning. Roll the dough scraps and continue cutting out and baking cookies until all the dough is used. When cookies come out of the oven let them stand on the cookie sheet to firm slightly before putting them on a rack to cool entirely.

Once our cookies were baked and cooled the fun started. I set out various tubes of icing (not home-made - I'm no hero when it comes to cookie decorating) and sprinkles and let the boys have at 'er.

They had so much fun decorating (i.e. making a mess of the kitchen). You can see that David even got in on the action - that's his ginger-hab boy in the bottom right corner. One of our gingerbread girls turned into a hula dancer. And Patrick made a Luigi (from Super Mario Bros.) gingerbread boy. We're a creative bunch. These truly are great-tasting gingerbread cookies so the boys were very proud to share their beautiful and delicious creations with guests through the month.

Doesn't this guy look like he's trying to wave for help, perched up on the pantry shelf in his Tupperware prison? He knows he looks good and he's tasty, so he's a goner.

All things considered, I don't think the boys will be begging to do a gingerbread house next year. No-rage gingerbread cookies are so much more fun!

Can't Stop Making Soup!

2012-01-04T18:27:00.001-05:00

Blame it on the snow. When the snowflakes begin dancing down from the sky my immediate reaction is to throw open the fridge and see what I have that can be turned into soup. After the excesses of Christmas and New Year's I knew I would find some potential soup ingredients lingering in my crisper drawer. What I found: a huge bulb of fennel that I had needed only sparingly for my ill-fated Chestnut Soup adventure and a bag of carrots. Quick as I could Google 'carrot and fennel soup' I wound up at One Perfect Bite.

Fennel is one of those ingredients that I have avoided for years. It's awkward to fit in the fridge (or at least my crisper drawer) and apparently it tastes like licorice and I'm not a big licorice fan. But I needed some fennel sprigs for my chestnut soup so I bought fennel. And rather than let it go to waste I was happy to at least try it in soup. (I know - I'm a huge risk taker, right?) So I chopped up my fennel bulb and sauteed it in some butter as per my chosen recipe and right away I think I knew I was going to be a fennel convert. It might have been the butter that suckered me, but the smell of the fennel as it softened was lovely. Not as pungent as fried onions but in the same ball park. Next I peeled and chopped my carrots which I added to the fennel along with some garlic and vegetable broth. Once the carrots were nice and soft I pureed the mixture in my blender then added some Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream that was indicated in the original recipe.

I am nuts for Greek yogurt lately. Can't get enough of it. Greek yogurt with honey is possibly the best afternoon snack ever invented. I've both cooked and baked with Greek yogurt and I'll never go back to using regular.

Where was I? Right. Soup. I realize now that I'm looking through the recipe again that I forgot to add fresh orange juice to finish my soup. I imagine the sweetness of the orange juice would work well here but I can't say the soup didn't delight without the juice. Both David and I really enjoyed it. I served it with some fresh-out-of-the-oven baking soda biscuits that I slathered with butter and honey. The biscuits were a craving I just couldn't shake despite over-indulging the last few weeks on all of the other goodies we made for Christmas. (Which I will detail in another post.) Whatever fennel may taste like raw, saute it in some butter and boil it up with carrots and vegetable broth and I get nothing like licorice. It definitely was there - the carrots were sweet but they didn't dominate, so the fennel showed up. I just can't peg the flavour. No matter, I liked it and have lots of leftovers for quick dinners this week which makes me happy.

Carrot-and-Fennel Soup from One Perfect Bite

2 tablespoons unsalted butter or olive oil
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced; fronds reserved
1-1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
2 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
2 to 4 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream (I used Greek yogurt, plain)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large heavy saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter until foamy. Add fennel slices and cook, stirring, until softened. Add carrots and garlic and cook another minute or two. Pour in 4 cups of vegetable stock and season with salt. Simmer, covered, until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove soup from heat and stir in orange juice, sour cream and reserved fennel fronds. If you have an immersion blender puree soup in pot, otherwise puree in batches using a food processor or blender. If soup appears too thick, thin with reserved vegetable stock. Adjust seasoning to taste. Yield: 4 to 5 servings.

The biscuits are from a Williams-Sonoma Cookbook the kids gave me for my birthday years ago. They are so simple but with butter and fresh honey on a cold day, a dream addition to lunch. I halved the recipe because I knew I would eat an entire batch solo if given half a chance...

Classic Baking Powder Biscuits from Williams Sonoma

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1⁄2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. fine sea salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into
1⁄4-inch dice
2⁄3 cup milk

Preheat an oven to 450°F. Lightly butter a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal, handling it as little as possible. Stir in the milk and blend with a spoon just until all the liquid has been absorbed. With lightly floured hands, work the dough briefly until it barely holds together in a flaky ball.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Roll or pat the dough out into a round about 1⁄2 inch thick. With a 2-inch biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass, cut out as many rounds as possible. Gather up the scraps, work into a cohesive ball, reroll and cut out more rounds. Do not reroll the dough more than once or you will end up with tough biscuits.

Transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Makes about 9 biscuits.

Spicy Roasted Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

2011-12-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

Just before Christmas I made this amazing soup. I quite liked it despite the 'spicy' part. Normally I'm not so in to spicy. But this soup had enough sweet (from the potato and carrot) to win me over. At the time I thought it was very good and would be even better on a cold, snowy evening with some homemade biscuits. It snowed quite a bit today so tomorrow I plan on following through and making both soup and biscuits for a cozy lunch. This soup is easy - peel your veggies, toss them in olive oil and spices (red pepper flakes, paprika, cumin and ginger) and roast in the oven. Throw the roasted veggies into a blender with some chicken broth and milk (the original recipe calls for half and half) whiz it all together and enjoy.

spicy roasted sweet potato and carrot soup with ginger from sisters running the kitchen

4 carrots, peeled & cubed
2 sweet potatoes, cubed
Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 Tablespoons roughly chopped fresh ginger (I substituted 1/4 tsp dried)
1 1/4 cups Half-and-Half (I substituted an equal amount of 1% milk)
4 cups of chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 425F. Chop the sweet potatoes and carrots into equal sizes. Combine sweet potatoes, carrots, olive oil, red pepper flakes, cumin, paprika, and ginger on a baking sheet. Roast in single layer for about 40 minutes.

Add roasted veggies to large pot. Add chicken broth, half-and-half,[ and chopped fresh ginger, if you didn't use dried]. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth. If you do not have an immersion blender, then use a regular blender or food processor. Reheat the soup slowly and serve.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

2011-12-24T12:09:00.001-05:00

...sounds so inviting. However Jack Frost is not likely to be nipping at my nose this Christmas. Twill be a green Christmas around these parts. Which is really bumming out the kids. The adults, not so much. Kids don't have to worry about long commutes or rising heat costs. Where was I? Chestnuts roasting...right.

It might be my own reaction to a green Christmas, my recent obsession with roasting chestnuts. I bought a huge bag of chestnuts a couple of weeks ago and decided I was going to make chestnut soup. I found a recipe in The Essential New York Times Cookbook that sounded quick and easy, so I filed away 'make chestnut soup' on my to-do list for Christmas Eve day. As it turns out, I got to make chestnut soup the day before Christmas Eve. We all decided to take Friday off - from work, from school - from the hustle and bustle of the mall and the grocery store. And we all did whatever we wanted Friday. Wore our pajamas until 2:00 in the afternoon. Read every word of the newspaper. Made a huge mess of the kitchen making chestnut soup.

To make chestnut soup you need chestnuts, obviously. Apparently you can buy jarred roasted chestnuts. I would recommend doing that if you are ever struck by a need to make chestnut soup. Because roasting chestnuts sounds romantic but it isn't. It sounds like a quaint and fun way to spend a Friday afternoon. It isn't. It sounds simple - make a small 'x' on the rounded end of your chestnut(s), place on a cookie sheet and roast in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes.

I will always remember making chestnut soup not because it is the best soup I have ever tasted, but because I nearly lost a finger in the process making said soup. I had my little accident while trying to score x's into the round ends of my chestnuts, apparently to help make them easier to shell after roasting. I still have five fingers on my right hand, thankfully, but I've lost a good chunk of a finger, a chunk I doubt will grow back. Because as far as I know, fingers don't grow back if you cut them off or, as in my case, cut out a chunk. It's not a surface wound, not an abrasion. It's a chunk, gone, from my finger. You'd think that losing a chunk of my finger would have dampened my enthusiasm for chestnut soup but apparently I am nothing if not determined. After sustaining this injury I simply taped up my finger (lest I bleed into the soup) and continued the thankless task of scoring my chestnuts on the ends with happy little x's. Then I nearly chopped off my finger. Same finger now missing a chunk. I got a little smarter after inflicting that wound. I wrapped it up with about five band-aids (it was on the cusp of 'this needs stitches' but I figured if my dad could tape up my brother after he got stepped on by a hockey skate when he was 14 so he could take his next shift I could tape up my finger and keep making soup) and changed my technique. So you heard it here first - chestnuts will roast and peel fine if you just cut off a small slice of the (rounded) end of the chestnut before roasting. Don't waste your life (and risk your fingers) scoring little x's into the ends. No good can come of it.

So hours later, because I couldn't figure out how many chestnuts to roast to yield two cups (turns out a lot) I finally got to the soup making part of the program. I boiled my 2 cups of chestnuts with 8 cups of chicken broth and about three strips of thick-cut bacon (cut into three sections) plus some sprigs of fennel. Forty minutes later I pureed the chestnuts along with 2 cups of the chicken broth (removing the bacon). Next I put the puree into a new saucepan and added a couple more cups of the remaining chicken broth plus 3/4 cup of milk and 2-3 tablespoons of Greek yogurt, stirring to blend. Then hours, perhaps days after starting the soup (it felt like days) I tasted the soup. And it was...okay. Not awful. Not amazing. It tasted like nuts. (Which shouldn't have surprised me.) I'm not sure what I was expecting. I re-heated it for dinner and found the flavour had improved (again, not that it was bad to begin with). It will be a festive touch Christmas Day, when I don't plan on making lunch but will have lots of things set out to nibble on - cheese ball, crackers, veggies, hummus, amazing California mandarins, peanut brittle and coffee cake. And we'll have chestnut soup. I will be sitting back in a comfy chair, snuggled into some festive pillows reading a good book which I am sure to get from Santa. After all, I've been good this year. Merry Christmas!

Caramel Corn

2011-12-19T14:22:00.000-05:00

Our house smelled like a carnival on a Saturday night. Not the dodgy area of a carnival where the gas generators are belching out smoke to keep the Tilt-A-Whirl going and you find row upon row of Port-A-Pottys. And certainly not the part where you can hitch a ride on a pony or pet a goat. Our house smelled like the concession area of a carnival where you can enjoy fresh-squeezed lemonade, bright pink candy floss and sweet, sticky caramel corn.

I've had this caramel corn recipe bookmarked on my iPad for months just waiting for Christmas. I thought it would be fun to give away to my office-mates. I love receiving home-made gifts at Christmas. Since I can't knit or sew or craft my only option when it comes to giving home-made Christmas cheer is food.

This recipe starts with popcorn, of course. You need 10 cups of it, lightly salted. (You can use bags of microwave popcorn but go for 'natural' flavoured versus buttered.) I actually make popcorn in the microwave using small paper lunch bags. I pour in enough popcorn to cover the bottom of the bag, fold over the top of the bag a couple of times then microwave for about 2 minutes. I did two bags like this and ended up with the required 10 cups of popcorn. Once your popcorn is popped and lightly salted, it should be placed in a large mixing bowl that is lightly coated with cooking spray. Now you can move on to the caramel part of the process.

Caramel is all about sugar and butter. Add a little salt and some heat and bam - you've got caramel. The heat component requires a good candy thermometer (or, if you have one a Thermapen, which I just happened to receive for my birthday). Once you've reached the desired temperature (250F) you toss in some baking soda and vanilla then coat your popcorn with the luxurious result. And just when you think your kitchen is the sweetest smelling place on the planet, it gets sweeter because you spread your now coated popcorn onto a baking sheet and let it bake for 1 hour in a 250F oven. The sugary-sweet perfume that slowly wafts through the house will cause children to put down their gaming devices and husbands to put down their newspapers to come ask 'what's that amazing smell?'.

If you are wise, you will immediately pack this caramel corn into gift bags for giving. Otherwise you will eat the entire batch yourself.

Caramel Corn, from Orangette

1 (3½-ounce) package plain (unbuttered natural flavor) microwave popcorn, or about 10 cups fresh popcorn popped by any method, lightly salted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup lightly salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 250°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

If using microwave popcorn, pop the popcorn according to the package instructions. Coat a large mixing bowl with nonstick cooking spray, and dump the popcorn into the bowl, taking care to pick out and discard any unpopped kernels.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Continue to simmer, whisking often, until the mixture reads 250°F on a candy thermometer, about 3 to 4 minutes. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the baking soda and vanilla. Quickly pour the hot caramel over the popcorn. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the caramel into the popcorn, taking care to distribute it as evenly as you can. Stir in the peanuts, and transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour, stirring and turning the popcorn with a spatula every 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, and place on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Gently break up the popcorn, and serve.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days (or thereabouts).

Yield: about 10 cups

Of Muffins, Hot Fudge Cake and Jingle Bells

2011-12-04T19:49:00.001-05:00

Have I really never immortalized Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins from here on my blog? (Actually, yes I have. If you don't have it yet, buy the cookbook Hungry for Comfort. You won't be sorry.) I made a batch of these for breakfast this morning and they were divine. Later in the day I finally got to use my cover-worthy ramekins to make Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake. The entire time I was in the kitchen (all day) I played Christmas songs. Every once in a while Patrick would sneak in and say "Are you ready to sing a little jingle bells Mummy?". We are digging the new Michael Buble Christmas album. Maybe a little too much...

Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins from Hungry for Comfort

3/4 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups coarsely chopped cranberries (I use frozen. Don't thaw.)
4 tsp grated lemon zest

Topping
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

In food processor or blender grind rolled oats until powdered; transfer to a large bowl. Stir in flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt; cut in butter until crumbly.

Whisk together milk and egg; pour over dry ingredients. Sprinkle with cranberries and lemon zest; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon into large greased or paper-lined muffin cups, filling three-quarters full.

Topping: combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over batter. Bake in 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

As for Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes, why did I wait so long to make these? The recipe was featured in Cooking Light in December 2008, appearing on the cover. And while the recipe sounded like a knock-out, what actually caught my attention was the ramekin holding the Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake. I coveted those ramekins for a year and finally found them at Crate and Barrel - the Stockholm. David bought me six for my birthday in 2009. And while I've used them plenty since then they have yet to fulfill their destiny of hot chocolate fudge goodness. Until today.

I didn't dust our Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes with icing sugar because I thought David might keel over if he had to wash one more kitchen implement. This was a big baking / cooking day for me. (Making up for the last few weeks of inactivity in the kitchen, I guess.) I made the aforementioned muffins, Roasted Parsnip Soup, Soft Ginger Cookies, Beef Carbonnade, Cheddar Quick Bread and Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes. More on some of these recipes this week, if I have time to immortalize them.

Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes from Cooking Light

3 2/5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
5 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup egg substitute
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (2.6-ounce) bar dark (71% cocoa) chocolate (such as Valrhona Le Noir Amer), finely chopped
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Sift together flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt.

2. Place butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 1 minute. Add granulated and brown sugars, beating until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add egg substitute and vanilla, beating until well blended. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture; fold in chocolate. Divide batter evenly among 10 (4-ounce) ramekins; arrange ramekins on a jelly-roll pan. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or up to 2 days.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. Let ramekins stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Uncover and bake at 350° for 21 minutes or until cakes are puffy and slightly crusty on top. Sprinkle evenly with powdered sugar; serve immediately.

I halved the recipe (we didn't need 10 of these for the 4 of us!) and it turned out just fine. I also made it ahead as suggested and it turned out perfectly.

A busy but tasty day in the kitchen today. I'll finish with another gem on our Christmas song play list, It Snowed, by Meaghan Smith. It hasn't actually snowed yet, but this is the (almost) one year anniversary of when snowmaggedon hit us last year. "The road is buried four feet high..." ah, the memories! (Truth be told, I wouldn't mind a little snow right now. Just a smidgen. A festive flake or two.)

Spiced Pumpkin Oatmeal

2011-11-13T09:07:00.001-05:00

It's kind of hard to get interested in dishes like stick-to-your-ribs oatmeal when the temperature is so balmy. Yesterday I went for a 5K run outside, which is the latest in the year I have ever run outside. Balmy weather notwithstanding, the temperature is definitely on its way down so this morning I decided it would be a good time to try out Spiced Pumpkin Oatmeal, a recipe that caught my eye in The Essential New York Times Cookbook.

Oatmeal is trendy right now. (I know this to be true because you can get it at McDonalds.) A lot of oatmeal gets eaten at our house. David has a bowl every morning and I try to have a bowl two or three times a week. Daniel likes oatmeal as well (or maybe it's the brown sugar and raisins he likes?) leaving Patrick as the only oatmeal hold-out in our family. I'm not sure this pumpkin-spice version will change his mind but it's a great treat for those of us (i.e. me) who like pumpkin.

This oatmeal kind of reminds me of a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I topped it with some chopped apple and maple syrup which was a great way to finish it off. It's really a simple dish to put together and the ingredients (spices, brown sugar, pumpkin, milk, oatmeal) are things I generally always have on hand. All you really need is time to let the works simmer on the stove. On a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning a bowl of Spiced Pumpkin Oatmeal, a cup of green tea and the crossword would make for an ideal start to the day.

Spiced Pumpkin Oatmeal from The New York Times

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
4 1/2 cups low-fat milk or water
1 1/2 cups steel-cut oats
3/4 teaspoon salt
Warm apple sauce, optional
Chopped fresh apple, optional
Apple cider syrup, optional

In a large saucepan over low heat, toast allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger, stirring occasionally until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, then add pumpkin and stir to combine. Add milk or water, raise heat and bring mixture to a simmer. Stir in oats, and simmer over medium heat until tender but not mushy, about 25 to 30 minutes. Stir in salt.

Serve with applesauce, apple and syrup if desired.

YIELD: 6 servings

Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-11-02T18:59:00.005-04:00

I love a good chocolate chip cookie. As evidenced by my post Chocolate Chip Cookie Smackdown. In fact, everyone around here loves chocolate chip cookies. And since we consume so many of them I decided to try and make them a wee bit healthier. So one night while watching Modern Family, I did a bit of research to see what my options were in terms of making our favourite cookie healthy. (As an aside, can I just say that Modern Family is the best thing on TV right now? Aside from the BBC adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, but new episodes for that won't air until 2012.) Turns out lots of people who like chocolate chip cookies also like being healthy. Enter Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies. Whole wheat flour and ground flax seed make you feel a smidge better about eating a plateful of chocolate chip cookies after a long day. (Not that I've ever done that, of course.) These cookies are the real deal. There may be healthier recipes out there but for me, this recipe covers my must-haves for home made cookies, which is to say they contain butter and brown sugar. (You had me at butter.)

Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies - from The Yummy Life

2-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, flax seed, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In large mixing bowl (use stand or hand mixer), cream butter; add sugars and mix until creamy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. With mixer running, gradually add flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time until completely mixed. Add chocolate chips and nuts (if using) and blend on low, just until mixed. (Note: The dough can be refrigerated at this point and baked later.) Use a scoop or spoon to form walnut size balls of cookie dough. Space 2" apart on a parchment lined baking sheet; flatten them slightly with your fingers. Bake 2 sheets at a time, rotating and switching pans half way through cooking time. Bake 12-14 minutes.

FREEZING TIP: Mix dough, form into flattened balls and freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet. When completely frozen, transfer to ziploc bag and return to freezer. To bake, arrange frozen dough balls on baking sheet and bake as described above, adding 2-3 minutes to cooking time.

Seared Flank Steak with 'stop me before I drink this' Shallot-Mustard Sauce

2011-10-30T13:03:00.002-04:00

I love flank steak. It is so easy to cook and can be prepared in so many different ways that it never feels like the same meal twice. Last Sunday we had Seared Flank Steak with Shallot-Mustard Sauce served with Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Maple-Sage Butter. Both recipes are from Fine Cooking and both are dishes I would definitely enjoy again. We were particularly enamoured with the Shallot-Mustard sauce. It came together as the last part of the meal and while I was reducing and whisking, simmering but not boiling I thought to myself 'Do we really need sauce? I bet the steak will be just fine without it.'. Man, was I wrong. Not totally wrong. The steak would have been fine with no sauce. But the sauce (which, if I'm being honest is mostly butter) made the meal. As the title of this post suggests.

I need to work on figuring out how to take better pictures in low-light situations. Sunday dinner shots are usually taken in low-light and they are consistently blurry. This steak tasted so good I feel like this picture doesn't do it justice.

I don't know why I was so surprised that this steak was so good. Last Summer I discovered the taste sensation that results from topping grilled steaks with pats of butter. This shallot-mustard sauce features six tablespoons of butter. Lesson learned. Butter does indeed make everything better. Our plates were shiny at the end of this meal from mopping up every last drop of delightful sauce. The Sweet Potato Apple side dish was a nice sweet accompaniment to the more savoury steak, although my timing was a bit off so rather than crisp sweet potato wedges ours were a bit mushy. Which worked out well when it came time for leftovers the next day as I simply mashed the apples and sweet potatoes together for a nice side dish with some baked chicken breasts. There were no steak leftovers. See above - buttery sauce too good to resist!

Seared Flank Steak with Shallot-Mustard Sauce - from Fine Cooking

1 flank steak, about 1-1/2 lb.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs. corn oil
6 Tbs. cold unsalted butter (4 Tbs. cut into 1/2-inch cubes)
3 Tbs. finely minced shallot
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
3/4 cup low-salt beef broth
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbs. chopped fresh tarragon

Set a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 400°F. Season the steak generously with salt and pepper. Heat an ovenproof 12-inch sauté pan over high heat until very hot. Add the oil to coat the pan and sear the steak on one side until well browned, about 1-1/2 minutes. Flip with tongs and cook until the second side is well browned, about another 2 minutes. Put the pan in the oven and roast until the steak is cooked to your liking, 5 to 7 minutes for medium rare. Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let rest, lightly covered with foil, while you make the sauce.

Set the same skillet over medium heat and add 2 Tbs. of the butter. When the butter melts, add the shallot and garlic and cook until soft and translucent but not browned, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, increase the heat to medium high, and boil until syrupy, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the broth and thyme and boil until about 1/3 cup of liquid remains, 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the mustard. (Don’t let the sauce boil after the mustard is added.) Stir in the 4 Tbs. butter cubes, a few at a time. Stir in half the tarragon and season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

With a sharp knife, slice the steak thinly across the grain on the diagonal, drizzle with the sauce, and sprinkle with remaining tarragon.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Maple-Sage Butter - from Fine Cooking

1-1/2 to 2 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled, halved crosswise, and cut into 3/4-inch-thick wedges
2 Tbs. olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 medium-large tart green or red apple, quartered, cored, cut into 16 wedges, wedges halved crosswise
1 Tbs. chopped fresh sage
1-1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. pure maple syrup

Position a rack in the top third of the oven and heat the oven to 475°F.

In a large bowl, toss the sweet potatoes with the oil, 1 tsp. salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 10 minutes; then flip the potatoes and continue roasting until tender and browned in spots, about 5 minutes more.

While the potatoes roast, heat the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted and beginning to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the apples in a single layer and brown on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side.

Add the sage and stir until wilted, about 30 seconds. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and maple syrup. With a spatula, scrape the apples and butter into the bowl used for tossing the potatoes.

When the potatoes are done, add them to the apples and gently combine with the spatula. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

Gluten-Free Goodies

2011-10-24T19:18:00.000-04:00

I am somewhat relieved that no-one in my household requires a special diet. We have no allergies to contend with - just the usual aversions and picky palates, which are easily (generally) dealt with. I know if I had to, I could cope with peanut-free or gluten-free but it's so nice to be able to cook with whatever ingredients happen to strike my fancy.

I didn't set out for this to be a gluten-free baking kind of weekend but that's how it ended up. I baked a gluten-free chocolate cake for a potluck and then on Sunday tried my hand at making a gluten-free apple pie. Here are the recipes, both of which I would recommend whether you are gluten-free by necessity or just curious to try something different.

First the cake. I found this recipe on a blog called Home to Heather. I was intrigued by the use of quinoa which I've just discovered and have managed to feed my family several times without incident, despite not having disguised it as chocolate. Here, quinoa is used in place of flour to make a fudgy chocolate cake that is super moist. All you need to do is make up a batch of quinoa (much like cooking rice) then wait for it to cool. Into the blender it goes with water, milk, eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil. Once you blend it together you really can't tell that the thick batter you've created is mostly quinoa! Once you add the dry ingredients (including sugar and cocoa powder) it looks like regular ol' cake batter.

I quite liked the taste of this cake which I didn't ice or embellish in any way (and forgot to photograph...which is very unlike me, but there you go). Some powdered sugar or cut-up fruit would be great alongside. I used Trader Joe's organic quinoa which seemed to give the cake a somewhat nutty taste. Not unpleasant, just different from your usual chocolate cake flavour. Overall - a success. I would - and did - eat a piece even with 'regular' chocolate cake on offer.

On to the apple pie. Last October I saw a recipe in the Saturday Globe & Mail for a gluten-free (whole grain crusted) apple pie created by Michael Smith, a chef I quite enjoy, having used one of his cookbooks on several occasions. So last October, feeling very ambitious, I bought a bag of ground almond meal and rice flour to give this pie a go. Then things happened. Halloween. Snow. More snow. Snow that wouldn't stop. Spring finally came. And the gluten-free apple pie project kind of got forgotten. Fast forward to this October and I'm cleaning my pantry. I've glanced up at my (expensive) bags of ground almond meal and rice flour a few times this past year but never felt inspired enough to see things through. This Sunday I decided to make the pie. (I may have taken my inspiration from the fact that my almond meal and rice flour were drawing close to their expiry dates.)

I am not a big pastry fan, but I actually liked this crust:

See how oatmeal-y it us? It made the pie taste kind of like a crisp. I filled the shell with lots of Macintosh apples, which were abundant in our fruit cellar (another big part of the reason I became inspired to make this pie..someone overbought apples last week):

I can't forget to mention the cinnamon, which you can see liberally applied (along with sugar) to my apples. I was gifted some Spice Trader Ceylon Cinnamon by friends a few weeks ago. I use a lot of cinnamon at my house but it is generally of the Clubhouse variety. Ceylon Cinnamon is in a whole other league. Incredibly fragrant and obviously fresh. I'm so glad I remembered I had it on hand.

Now I'm not going to lie to you. This whole grain crust is a huge pain in the butt to place in the pie plate. The bottom crust wasn't so bad. I rolled it out on my trusty Tupperware pastry mat (circa 1977) then put my pie plate over-top and used the mat to turn the whole works upside down, so the crust made its way into the pie plate relatively intact. I still had to patch the crust a bit, but it came out looking pretty decent, as above. The top crust was not quite as easy. I finally just resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't going to be a pretty pie and into the oven she went, hoping for at least the Miss Congeniality prize, since 'Most Attractive' was not in the cards. And you know what? She didn't come out too badly:

As far as taste goes, this pie can totally compete with regular apple pie. Or at least I think it can. I'm not a huge pie fan / freak so maybe my taste buds shouldn't be your guide in this particular case. The crust is, as you might expect, quite nutty but also buttery which is a combination I can get behind. It is definitely heavier than regular pie crust but I think that works with the apples.

So that's my brief foray into gluten-free baking. A whirlwind weekend of cake and pie. Who says we don't know how to have fun around here?

Busy. Life.

2011-10-20T20:10:00.003-04:00

That pretty much sums things up lately. It has been weeks since I have spent one of my Sundays in the kitchen, which has meant falling back on old favourites for dinner. Which isn't such a bad thing. This past weekend we had a great Shepherd's Pie with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potato Crust. The week before that we had Pumpkin Pasta Surprise. (Surprise! No one knew there was pumpkin in their pasta!) On Sunday I did manage to throw together soup for the week - a very reliable Squash-Pear soup that is just a little bit sweet.

This weekend we are pot-lucking with friends and I am in charge of cake. And it's going to be chocolate. To keep things interesting, and because everyone at the potluck should get cake, I'm also going to try making a gluten-free chocolate cake using my new favourite grain, quinoa, or 'round rice' as we've billed it when serving to the boys.

Since I use this blog as a sort of diary of our food adventures I hope to get back to more interesting posts soon. And since I hate to have a post with no pictures here are two. One, my plate at Thanksgiving. Fantastic meal cooked by my SIL. I brought Rainbow Salad since it worked out so well the first time. See that big ol' zucchini? Stuffed with goat cheese and mint, then baked. Despite my vow to ban zucchini from my plate, I quite enjoyed it.

And how about these cuties?

Cookie Monster Cupcakes. Which work on so many levels. Courtesy of my other SIL for my nieces' second birthday bash. Adorable and I am told, delicious. (I went for the pumpkin cheesecake instead, which was fantastic.) So I've been having some great meals lately, I just haven't produced many of them myself!

Butterscotch Bark. AKA - Trouble

2011-10-14T20:07:00.003-04:00

With a capital T. That's what these squares are. I would know - I've already eaten two. Two. They are kind of a cross between a butterscotch bar and a magic square. To make them required a stick and a half of butter. A stick and a half. Of butter. So if you're wondering, the best way to end a busy week is to make some Butterscotch Bark. Then eat more of it than you should instead of having a run.

Butterscotch Bark from Martha Stewart

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
12 graham crackers
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup light-brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread 1 cup each chopped pecans and shredded sweetened coconut on baking sheet; bake until golden, 5 minutes. Cool; toss with 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips.

Line a 10-by-15-inch rimmed baking sheet with foil. Break 12 graham crackers in half; fit in pan in single layer.

In saucepan, whisk 12 tablespoons unsalted butter and 1/2 cup light-brown sugar over medium until smooth; spread over crackers.

Bake until bubbly, 10 minutes. Sprinkle with nut topping; press gently. Cool; break into pieces.

Football Brownies

2011-10-03T20:29:00.000-04:00

We are not a football household. Despite the fact that our first date was at a football game, neither David or I could be considered football fans. In fact, I only went on that first-date football game because it was a chance to get to know David better. We were in first year University and football was a rite of passage on campus. Everyone went to the football games, particularly the Homecoming game. I don't remember anything about that first-date football game. Well, that's not entirely true. I don't remember who won. I do remember that Laurier was playing Western, at Western. Both of us had gone home (from Laurier - go Hawks!) for the weekend and the game was a good excuse to get to see each other on a Saturday afternoon. It wasn't like I was a fan. Of football. I didn't - and still don't - get football. I think David knew I had no idea what was going on. He was too nice to say anything. Or maybe he was just as smitten as I was? (Not that boys can be smitten. You know what I mean.)

So we don't do football at our house but we do do brownies. And we can think on our feet. When a friend asked for help coming up with a treat to feed some hungry football fans all I had to do was whip up a batch of my awesome One-Bite Brownies and buy a tube of white icing. Ta-da!

Doesn't get easier than that.

Zen Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

2011-09-27T18:26:00.000-04:00

Although the weather feels more like Summer I am still noticing touches of Fall here and there, such as the abundance of pumpkin flavoured goods on display wherever I go. I love baking and cooking with pumpkin. Sunday I made up a batch of Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins to use up the pumpkin I had left over from making Pumpkin (Quick) Bread. They are Zen muffins only because I enjoyed mine at my desk in my office with some Zen tea at work.

These muffins, like the Pumpkin Bread I made earlier, use whole wheat flour (along with some regular white flour). I've been substituting whole wheat flour while baking lately and I can't say the taste or texture of anything I have made has suffered. (The kids haven't noticed so that's a bonus. Must remember to post Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe!) These muffins are dense but moist. The recipe suggests various add-ins but I left them plain. So perfect with a hot steaming cup of tea.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins from Peanut Butter Fingers
Makes 12 muffins

Prep time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 18 minutes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup canola oil
Optional mix-ins: nuts, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, raisins

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line muffin tin with muffin cups.

Combine whole wheat flour through sugar in a large bowl and mix to evenly distribute ingredients.

In a separate bowl, mix egg, pumpkin, milk and canola oil.

Pour pumpkin mixture into flour mixture and stir until batter is thick and fully mixed. Fold in optional mix-ins.

Pour batter into muffin cups and bake for 18 minutes or until tops of the muffins bounce back when lightly touched. Cool, top with cinnamon or honey butter and enjoy.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin (Quick) Bread

2011-09-18T19:17:00.000-04:00

This weekend was such a relief. A welcome respite from the reality of the last couple of weeks. (It's been very real around here of late) September has been a strange month so it was wonderful to spend a Sunday in the kitchen again. It felt familiar and I've been craving something familiar. So after David and I ran in the Terry Fox Run (10K) this morning I went crazy in the kitchen - pumpkin bread, banana maple oatmeal cookies and pork roasted slowly with apples. It was very Fall-ish here today.

I was so pleased with how this pumpkin bread turned out:

It's made with whole wheat flour but I don't think you can tell. It's just as moist and tasty as pumpkin bread I've made in the past with regular ol' white flour. I found the recipe at Eating Clean Recipes and followed it exactly with the exception of omitting the nuts, since I want to include this in school lunchboxes. Mixing together the spices for this bread, which include the standard cinnamon, ginger, cloves mixture you find in all things pumpkin, I was struck by the fact that my mantle is still stuck in Summer mode. It smelled very Fall in the house but I haven't yet made the decorative leap to a new season. Add that to the list of things I should be able to get accomplished around the house this week.

This bread was so good eaten warm out of the oven I was tempted to just devour the whole loaf slathered in butter straight away. I controlled myself, thankfully, so will see if the flavour and texture hold up over the next week while I dole it out a slice at a time. I still have lots of pumpkin left over and have my eye on a few recipes to use it up. So far these pumpkin scones are at the top of my 'what to do with the rest of my canned pumpkin' list. (Yes, I have a list.)

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread from Eating Clean Recipes

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar or sucanat
3/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
3 tablespoon canola or safflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom of 8×4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and cloves. Set aside.
In medium bowl mix egg, sugar, yogurt, pumpkin, oil and vanilla until well blended. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Stir in walnuts. Pour batter into pan.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Makes 1 loaf (16 slices)

Penne with Broccoli Rabe and Ricotta

2011-09-17T16:57:00.001-04:00

The title of this post is not entirely accurate. I thought I bought broccoli rabe for this recipe but turns out I bought broccolini. Apparently broccolini is a cross between regular ol' North American broccoli and Chinese broccoli. Or so says this Wikipedia entry on the subject. Who knew? So for the official record, I made Penne with Broccolini and Ricotta. Not Broccoli Rabe.
On reading up a bit more about broccoli rabe I'm actually glad I accidentally bought broccolini. Sounds like broccoli rabe is an acquired taste. Broccolini, on the other hand is quite pleasant. It may be that I cooked the heck out of it hence removing any/all flavour, but I found it less harsh than broccoli and very tender. This pasta is made with turkey sausage removed from its casings cooked with red onion and garlic. The only easy way I have found to remove turkey sausage from casings through the years is with a good pair of kitchen scissors. Just make sure you wash your scissors after, obviously! I only use my kitchen scissors for cooking; they also come in handy when cutting up spaghetti for the kids, who haven't yet mastered the art of the fork-twirl.

Everyone enjoyed this dish, the first I have made from fitnessmagazine.com. I've been seeking out healthy recipes lately and trying to add more whole grains to our dinner table (hence the whole wheat penne).

Penne with Broccoli Rabe and Ricotta (from fitnessmagazine.com)

1 bunch broccoli rabe (or broccolini)
12 ounces whole-wheat penne
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 lean Italian turkey sausages, casings removed
1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced
small pinch crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup part-skim ricotta
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli rabe; cook for 4 minutes. Transfer the broccoli rabe to a colander. When it's cool enough to handle, chop into bite-size pieces.

Add the penne to the same pot of boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water before draining the penne.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausages, onion, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, crumbling the sausage with a wooden spoon, until browned, 8 minutes. Add the chopped broccoli rabe and saute until tender, about 2 more minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring until well combined, about 1 minute.

Adjust the heat to low and add the pasta to the skillet. Toss to combine the ingredients, adding a little of the reserved cooking water if the mixture seems dry. Stir in the ricotta and Parmesan, take the pan off the heat, and toss well. Serve immediately.

Welcome September Salad

2011-09-05T15:26:00.000-04:00

On Sunday we were invited to a last-weekend-of-Summer BBQ. The weather wasn't perfect but the menu and company more than made up for a bit of rain. Homemade burgers, fresh veggies and dip and potato chips - all hallmarks of a great backyard BBQ. I contributed Rainbow Salad and I was very pleased with how it turned out. Let's take a closer look!

This salad is advertised as a Winter salad but it ate just fine as part of a farewell to Summer dinner. It features romaine lettuce and red cabbage, mango, apple and pear along with roasted hazelnuts. (If you remember to pick them up at the grocery store you can also throw in some pomegranate seeds. I didn't. Remember, that is. I would have used them if I had!) The dressing is a simple mixture of red wine vinegar, minced shallot, honey and extra-virgin olive oil. I used raspberry red wine vinegar since that's what I had on hand. I thought it would go well with the other fruity elements of the salad and happily, it did.

This is a nice, cheerful salad. Each bite was a bit different owing to the variety of fruits and nuts in the bowl. The dressing was tangy and just a bit sweet thanks to the honey. The recipe also indicates blue cheese may be crumbled over-top. An excellent suggestion. This salad would also be wonderful in a wrap or pita.

So that's it. Summer is at an end. Well, not really. I know the calendar says it's Summer for a few more weeks and the weather forecasts are all promising sunshine and high temperatures for the next few days, but once the kids go back to school and the library starts to fill up with Frosh - well, at our house, these are sure signs that Summer is over.

Icing on the cake...

2011-09-01T20:24:00.001-04:00

The last few weeks have been something of a rush as we've scrambled to fit in birthdays, vacation and the dreaded back-to-school shop. (Is that just a boy thing? Because I used to love back to school shopping. My two fellas hate it with the passion of a thousand blazing suns.) Bottom line, I'm a bit behind in terms of keeping this food journal up to date. First order of business - birthday cake. I can't believe I have a nine year old, but it's true. Daniel requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for his cake this year and I was happy to oblige.

This year I was a tad busy at work the week of Daniel's birthday. So I took great pleasure in making his cake because I find baking relaxing. (I wish I found yoga or pilates relaxing - the health benefits of these pursuits versus baking sweet, sticky concoctions that beg to be consumed fresh out of the oven are obvious, no?) So. Cake. I think I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe to make this cake. I honestly can't remember, that's how busy I was that week. I have a vague memory of multiple cookbooks being flung open across my kitchen island while I searched for a recipe that promised to be simple yet tasty. I remember that I watched an episode or two of Monk while I was mixing the cake and while it was baking because I've developed something of a Monk-fixation this Summer thanks to Netflix. I also know that I used a Canadian Living Recipe for the icing because I was quite happy with how it turned out and made sure to create a Bookmark for the recipe. You can never have too many good recipes for chocolate icing, in my opinion. It might be a bit sweet for some tastes but we liked it just fine Chez Robinson. Particularly Patrick, who tends to eat all of the icing first, or save it as a treat for last depending on his mood!

Chocolate Icing Recipe - from Canadian Living

1 cup (250 mL) icing sugar
1/4 cup (50 mL) butter, softened
1 oz (28 g) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
4 tsp (18 mL) hot water
1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla

In bowl, beat sugar with butter; beat in chocolate, hot water and vanilla until smooth and fluffy.

Road Trip

2011-08-29T15:46:00.000-04:00

We're back from a fairly lengthy road trip. Over 4,000 km in the car. With two kids. Somehow, when your car is pointed in the direction of the sunny south, the trials and tribulations of car travel disappear. So how was it?

It hailed in Ohio. You can't tell from this picture but it did. Hard.


We found more Cars for our collection. Thank you Target!


I read five books. This was one of them.

We ate at Chick-Fil-A. Yum.

Java Chip Frappuccino Ice Cream? Double yum.

Polynesian Resort. Sand, sun, surf. Perfection.


Tomorrowland Speedway.

Adventureland, The Jungle Cruise

Fantasyland, Small World

A whole lotta Beakers....

Spicy Shrimp Sushi

And when we were done we got in the car, grabbed some Starbucks and pointed ourselves North.

Break-up Zucchini Tomato Tart

2011-08-11T07:46:00.000-04:00

One of the ways I have been trying to challenge myself in the kitchen is to be more creative with cooking vegetables. At this time of year, when zucchini becomes abundant (i.e. is everywhere at market), I typically stir-fry or grill it into submission. It's only ever okay. So I decided to try something completely different and take zucchini to the next level by making Zucchini Tomato Tart. (Which, by the time you add in eggs and cheese and pastry, likely diminishes the nutritional value of the zucchini. Let's overlook that, shall we?)

I'm glad I made this tart because I it has helped me confirm something I've been wondering about for a long time. I don't like zucchini. Zucchini bread, sure (particularly with chocolate) but despite making this lovely tart I still haven't cracked the zucchini code, so to speak. I don't fault the recipe. Besides zucchini this tart features tomato, egg and smoked Gouda cheese. All things that I like. The pastry is frozen puff pastry thawed, rolled thin, gently pressed into a tart pan. (Another reason I'm glad I made this tart - I have never used my tart pan, and I had an excuse to buy puff pastry. Still have half a pack in my freezer.) David actually quite liked this tart which was a surprise to both of us. I didn't even bother offering it to the boys since I could think of no way to 'sell' it. Sell as in 'It's like spaghetti, chicken, scrambled eggs...try it, you'll like it'.

I ate a wedge of this tart the next day for lunch and I liked it a bit better leftover. But still. I think I'm ready to admit I just don't like zucchini and stop buying it. Hence the title of this post. Sorry zucchini. I'm breaking up with you. It's not you, it's me. Really. I'll admit that for years, I never really made an effort to serve you at your best, but this time, this time I really tried and well...you know. See above. Don't worry. We'll still see each other sometimes, when I make zucchini bread or muffins for the kids. And I still like you in Lasagna. But I think it's best we keep this relationship casual. No hard feelings, okay?

Today is not Monday

2011-08-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

I've been on a real streak lately in the kitchen. Salad, cake, crisp, chowder....it would appear that we feast on a a never-ending cornucopia of earthly delights every night of the week. We don't. Tonight, for example. Tonight I fed my children cereal for dinner. Because it's hot, and because earlier in the day I thought it was Monday, then later in the day I thought it was Wednesday (it's Tuesday). Some days it's best to just step away from the stove and serve cereal for dinner. That is all.

Seafood Resolution Resolved: Salmon Caesar Salad

2011-08-07T19:39:00.001-04:00

I haven't made nearly enough salads this Summer. With produce at its peak I decided to make more of an effort to make salads a part of lunch and/or dinner around here this past week. Since I had some salmon in the freezer and another resolution (cook with seafood!) to knock off my New Year's Food Resolution list I decided to tackle Salmon Caesar Salad.

This recipe is based on one that I found here on a blog called Clean & Delicious. I didn't change too much - just a couple of things based on our taste preferences. For example, this recipe calls for tomato and asparagus in the salad. I had tomato on hand but no asparagus. Both would likely be quite nice, making for a bit more modern Caesar, but I didn't include either. The dressing I made exactly as directed and it was very good. We had enough to make salad for lunch the next day, with more leftover.

I started preparing this dish by making the dressing a few hours in advance. I wanted to give the flavours time to meld. The taste of the dressing is fantastic - very tangy. It was even more flavourful the next day.

Caesar Salad Dressing - from Clean & Delicious

1 big or 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp anchovy paste
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp of lemon juice
½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ cup of non fat Greek yogurt

Combine garlic through Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl, stirring to combine. Stir in yogurt. Makes 3/4 cup of dressing.

Next I made some croutons, since any Caesar salad worth eating needs croutons. To make the croutons I sliced 2 large slices of sourdough bread into cubes and scattered these on a baking pan. I put the pan in a 250 degree oven for 10 minutes to dry/toast the bread. Then I heated a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter in a skillet and added the toasted bread, stirring the cubes around to coat in the oil/butter mixture. I sprinkled the works with some basil. I likely cooked them for about 5 minutes. Then I put them on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil/butter.

Close to dinner I had David grill some salmon fillets on the BBQ. While he was doing that I tossed the dressing and croutons with some romaine lettuce and sprinkled on fresh grated Parmesan cheese. Seriously one of the easiest dinners you will ever make. Everything about this meal is fresh, fresh, fresh. We loved it.

Another bonus of making his meal is that I got to use my beautiful wooden salad bowl, which was a wedding gift (many, many years ago). (I didn't get a great picture of it but trust me, it's lovely.) For the first few years I had this bowl I only got it out for special occasions. Now that I've used it twice in the past two weeks I want to make more of an effort to use it regularly. One, it will require me to make salad more often and two, why can't every dinner be a special occassion? That was the whole reason I started the Sunday dinner tradition of having us eat in the dining room - to make sure a beautiful room was used and loved more often than at Easter or Christmas. And it's working, since the boys now look forward to our Sunday dinners almost as much as I do.

Peach Frozen Yogurt

2011-08-07T13:24:00.000-04:00

Back in May I spotted a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker on sale at HomeSense. It was less than half price and an appliance I have had my eye on for quite some time. My 'to-do' file of recipes (the paper one that falls out of my cupboard above my computer whenever I open the door) has more than a few ice cream recipes lurking within, waiting to be brought to life. So I bought it. Flash forward several months. A half dozen peaches sit on the kitchen cupboard. Anna Olsen offers up a tantalizing recipe for peach frozen yogurt in her cookbook Fresh which I peruse on the couch. The perfect storm of events for a maiden ice cream maker voyage.

This recipe was a good choice for a first time frozen dessert attempt. Few ingredients required, no complicated steps. My biggest problem was finding an appropriate container to store my final product. And peeling the peaches, which, depending on how ripe they are can be a huge pain. These peaches (Ontario born and raised) were cooperative, thankfully.

To peel peaches I put my peaches in a large bowl and cover them with boiling water. Once they have had a nice soak (about 5 minutes) I take them out one at a time and if all goes well (i.e. they are ripe and ready to eat) the skins simply slide off. Then I rinse them in cold water.

So. I peeled my peaches, diced them and put them in a blender with some superfine sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and yogurt. Then all I had to do was fold in the whipping cream (whipped to soft peaks) and pour the whole works into my ice cream maker. The bowl of the ice cream maker has been in my freezer for weeks. It has to be really, really frozen before you can use it. I put mine in the freezer shortly after I bought my ice cream maker and then kind of forgot about it until I decided to make my frozen yogurt.

My peach mixture whirred away in the ice cream maker for about 20 minutes. During that time you could definitely see the consistency changing - it wasn't quite done (i.e. fully frozen) when the twenty minutes were up but the instructions that came with the machine advise it takes another few hours for your ice cream (frozen yogurt) to completely freeze. When I took it out the next morning it was definitely frozen. In fact, I had to leave it out for a half hour or so to soften in order to serve it!

I served my peach frozen yogurt, like we serve most frozen treats around here, in the sundae glasses that I scored from the Dollar Store (two for a dollar) about ten years ago when we were having a backyard BBQ and serving a crowd ice cream sundaes. I knew they would be a good investment. I have a dozen or more of these dishes and I use them all the time, and not just for ice cream.

So far I haven't been able to convince the boys to taste my first ever ice cream / frozen yogurt creation. I should have billed it as ice cream. They eat frozen yogurt (and plain yogurt for that matter) but I'm pretty sure I've always just called frozen yogurt ice cream, so they were a bit suspicious when I first tried to scoop some out. David tried a spoonful, but he generally eschews ice cream of any kind so his reaction was fairly lukewarm. I personally quite liked how this turned out, however next time I might try and find a milder tasting yogurt. I used a Balkan-style plain yogurt in the recipe and I find its taste over-powers the fresh peaches.

(Psst - I halved this recipe since I didn't have all of the peaches required and it still came out fine.)

Peach Frozen Yogurt - from Anna Olsen

4 cups peeled and diced fresh peaches
1/2 cup superfine sugar (fruit sugar)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups yogurt
3/4 cup whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks

Purée peaches in a blender until smooth. Blend in sugar, lemon juice and vanilla until sugar has dissolved.

Pulse in yogurt until smooth. Fold in whipped cream and process in an ice cream maker following manufacturer’s instructions.

Scrape frozen yogurt into a non-reactive container and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours.

Comfort Food

2011-08-06T09:42:00.000-04:00

Chocolate chip cookies. Scalloped potatoes. Lasagna. Tomato soup. Some of my favourite comfort foods. Fried egg sandwiches are another comfort food that I find myself craving every once in a while. My dad taught me how to make fried egg sandwiches. And I've made plenty in my day, many during my tenure as a sort-of fry cook in a small-town diner. The first few times I offered David a fried egg sandwich he turned up his nose. Then he saw me eating one and remarked how good it looked. All it took was one bite and he was hooked.

Here's how this works. Heat up a frying pan over medium heat and melt a small pat of butter. Crack an egg into the pan and cook to your liking. (I like my egg a bit runny but David prefers the yolk hard.) Grate some cheddar cheese and slice some tomato. Toast two pieces of sourdough bread and spread with some mayonnaise. Top the egg with the grated cheddar. Put the tomato on the bread and the egg on the tomato. Top with the other slice of bread. Serve with a cold Coke. Because it is impossible to eat a fried egg sandwich without a cold Coke. And really, why would you want to?

New Year's (Food) Resolutions - update

2011-08-04T20:11:00.002-04:00

Back in January I prepared a New Year's (Food) resolutions list. I meant to update it in June/July, halfway through the year, but I forgot. I did do an update back in March but I haven't revisited this list in a while. I have a few things I wanted to add to the list so...no time like the present!

1. A recipe that requires a mandoline (the cutting kind, not the musical instrument kind, which is a mandolin). Like Pommes Anna. Or this Turnip-Parsnip Gratin that I wanted to make at Thanksgiving, but was without a mandoline so made Parsnip Crumble instead. Luckily I gave myself a mandoline for Christmas. Done

2. Chinese Food. I love Chinese food, and we have a perfectly wonderful go-to takeout place (Lotus Gardens) that we frequent, but I have always wanted to try making Chinese dishes at home. So this year on Chinese New Year I'm going to try and make a Chinese menu, including Pork-Fried Rice with Pineapple that is in my new Best Simple Recipes cookbook. Done

3. Seafood. D. and I both like seafood but I don't make a lot of it at home, so the boys aren't exposed to it all that often. Except when I make tuna or salmon salad sandwiches, and then they complain bitterly about the fishy smell. So baby steps are likely warranted. I'd love to do something like bacon-wrapped scallops, but will probably opt for homemade fish fingers.

Sigh. I struggle with seafood. I have some frozen shrimp and salmon in my freezer, bought with the intention of doing something semi-fabulous for this resolution. This recipe for Salmon Caesar Salad sounds like it would do the trick. And the shrimp would be great with some pasta.

~~4. Avocado. Don't know why, but I've moved on from ginger and now become sort of obsessed with avocado. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Just had to put that out there.~~ Done

5. Pudding Chomeur. I am a wee bit embarrassed that the first time I had this quintessential Quebecois dessert was at a St. Hubert's in Quebec City. It is a divine way to consume maple syrup so when the season hits, I want to capitalize on the wonderful local syrup that will be available at our local sugar bush/market. Done

6. Mediterranean Olive Bread. Our local fresh food market makes artisinal style olive ciabatta buns that are a mainstay at our Sunday dinner table. I happened on an olive quick bread recipe over at Food52.com and want to see how it compares. Strangely enough, no one in my family 'likes' olives but me, so this will have to be served under an assumed name, to be determined.

Haven't made good on this resolution yet. Maybe because it's so darn easy to buy my olive bread fix.

7. Cheddar Soup. I have been meaning to make this recipe ever since I bought a Walt Disney World cookbook on one our trips a year or so ago. This cheddar soup is served at Le Cellier, the restaurant in the Canadian Pavilion at Epcot. If I'm feeling inspired I may serve this soup with some homemade bread or buns. Which brings me to another resolution: Done

~~8. Try making more yeast breads, which tend to intimidate me. These Oatmeal-Molasses Rolls sound awfully good, so may be a perfect candidate.~~

I am counting this as done, thanks to my Hot Cross Buns period back in April. In fact, call me an overachiever because I recently whipped out the yeast again to make Doughnut Holes.

9. Summer Berry Pie. I have a long history of not enjoying the pie making process. It's mostly the pastry that gets me down. But Cook's Illustrated has a Summer Berry Pie that is made with a graham cracker crust and filled with fresh blackberries, blueberries and raspberries that tempts me every Summer. With an excellent berry farm near by, I plan to finally give in and make this pie come 2011.

I may have missed my window on this one. Fresh berries are sadly all but disappeared from my little corner of the world. And Summer Berry Pie strikes me as something you want to use fresh berries to make to really get the full effect. Maybe next year? If I roll this one over I might decide to make this Quick Classic Berry Tart from Ezra Pound Cake instead.

10. Cheesecake. No one in my immediate family likes cheesecake, so I never make it. Now that my SIL has suggested she would partake of a piece, were it to be on offer, I figure the next dinner involving extended family, I'm bringing a cheesecake. Not sure what flavour - oh, the possibilities! A search for 'cheesecake recipes' on Google would take me days to go through, and I haven't even started browsing through my cookbook collection or searching my most reliable online recipe sources.

I always assumed I would make this in the Fall so I feel okay that this is still outstanding.

So with half of the year (or so) left to go I've completed 6 out of 10 items on my list. Not too shabby! For extra credit (remember - overachiever) I think I'll add a few more items to the list.

1. Ice Cream. I bought an ice cream maker I found on sale back in May thinking it would be fun to make ice cream with the boys this Summer.

2. Green Goddess Dressing. I keep seeing references to this dressing/dip in my cookbooks, on food blogs and in magazines. Must do it.

3. I recently had Neapolitan Semifreddo at The Only

4. Tangerine-Glazed Ham. I found this recipe when I borrowed Eat This Book from the library recently. Might have to wait until 2012 since it sounds like the perfect Easter dish.

5. Pizza dough. Now that I've had two successes with yeast I'm ready to branch out. Also spotted in the above cookbook, an easy pizza dough recipe.

6. Something, anything from Baking: From My Home to Yours. The name Dorie Greenspan pops up all the time on the food blogs I follow. I finally laid my hands on this book and where do I start? Coffee break muffins? Maple Cornmeal Drop Biscuits? Cappuccino Marshmallows? Borrowed this particular tome but have a feeling I will have to buy it.

7. Club Sandwich Roll. I've only ever made dessert recipes from Anna Olsen. This Club Sandwich Roll is a bit outside my comfort zone (yeast again) but I love the concept: instead of making bread and then making a sandwich, you make bread that is a sandwich.

Just Peachy

2011-08-03T18:05:00.000-04:00

We keep pretty busy in August. We have birthdays to celebrate, Summer holidays to enjoy and peaches to eat. Lots and lots of peaches. Seems like every week I come home from the grocery store with peaches once August hits. I can't help it. David loves peaches. Particularly when I bake them into peach crisp.

This Peach Crisp recipe is from The Complete America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. You can find the recipe here, billed as apple crisp but with a peach substitution suggested at the bottom. I made Apple Crisp in the Fall using a Bon Appetit recipe that was pretty perfect but I am always up to try new crisp recipes. (Hence the Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp I turned out just last month.) Three out of four Robinsons in this household agree that the crisp is one of our favourite desserts. Nothing could be easier. Cut up some fruit, toss with with sugar, then set about creating a lovely crisp to go on top. This crisp topping includes the old standbys - flour, sugar(s), oatmeal and cinnamon. It also includes nuts which I don't cook or bake with often, even though none of us are allergic to nuts. I think I have heard 'no nuts please' from school, camp and other activities where snack is involved so often that I automatically avoid recipes where they are included. You could likely omit the nuts here. I used walnuts and found they did add a nice crunch but the overall flavour of the crisp wouldn't suffer without them. Those looking for a crisp that isn't runny don't try this one. I personally don't mind a runny crisp. Particularly when you have vanilla ice cream slowly melting into the sweet, runny nectar that gets left behind in the bowl. David is a purist and eats his crisp plain, preferably with a fresh cup of coffee. This crisp was the perfect end to our Monday night dinner this week. Our Sunday dinner this week consisted of a pool party / BBQ with friends. I made macaroni salad. A ton of macaroni salad. It was good, but not as good as the stuffed baked potatoes we had that were filled with bacon and cheese. Had me at bacon, obviously.

Raspberry Crumb Cake

2011-07-31T21:58:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was busy. Busy in a 'what fun thing do we get to do next' kind of way, not busy in a 'what do we have to do now' kind of way. Always prefer the former.

After making a rather large quantity of raspberry jam for my doughnut hole experiment I realized I was going to be eating raspberry jam for breakfast every day for a month (or two) unless I could find a creative way to use up a large quantity of raspberry jam. One of our weekend activities was entertaining family after a rousing game of t-ball and I wanted an easy fuss-free treat to serve on the patio. The raspberry jam was staring at me from the fridge all week so Thursday night I pulled it out, set it on the counter and determined to bake it into something delicious. Solution: Raspberry Crumb Cake. Found on a lovely little blog called The Corner Kitchen:

Raspberry Big Crumb Coffee Cake

(Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 2011)

For the crumb topping:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

For the cake:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 buttermilk

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

3/4 cup raspberry jam (or any other flavor you fancy)

Crumb topping

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, sugars, cinnamon & salt. Pour melted butter over the mixture, and mix using your hands, until large clumps form. (Mixing with your hands, versus using a wooden spoon or spatula makes for bigger crumbs).

Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8x8 baking pan with tin foil (or you can butter the pan). In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl (or mixer), beat butter and sugar on medium speed until pale yellow and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in egg and egg yolk, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of buttermilk (beginning & ending with flour). Continue to beat until well combined.

Spoon batter into pan, and spread evenly. Evenly spread the jam across the top of the batter. Sprinkle crumb topping over the jam layer.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

This cake really delivers - large crumbly topping, fresh raspberry jam, moist cake...it was great with lemonade and iced tea on the patio and it was great with a latte the next morning. You could likely substitute any jam you like for the raspberry. Blueberry strikes me as something I'd like to try. Next time....

Market fruit (and doughnuts)

2011-07-25T18:20:00.005-04:00

Saturday morning while the boys were getting haircuts I went to the farmer's market and was seduced by all of the wonderful in-season, locally-grown fruit on display. Strawberries, blueberries and raspberries all made the trip home with me. I was briefly tempted by some peaches but decided not to push my luck. (Peaches are an August fruit around our house.) After rushing the fruit home I rushed myself over to the movie theatre to meet Daniel so we could watch the last Harry Potter movie together. We've been going every week the last seven weeks, viewing one Harry Potter flick every Saturday morning from Philosopher's Stone through to this, the final installment of the Deathly Hallows. We've read most of the books together but Daniel wanted the final part of Deathly Hallows to be a 'surprise'. I, of course, knew what was going to happen having read the books as they were released. I still wasn't prepared. So we both laughed, screamed and cried (sobbed, really) together for two hours. It was awesome.

After being immersed in the Harry Potter universe for seven weeks, the 'oh-my-gosh it's really over' feeling has now overtaken both Daniel and I. Good thing I bought those raspberries. When I saw them I had a specific fate in mind for them - Doughnut Holes with Raspberry Jam. Because fried dough is the perfect way to mark the end of something great. I really wanted to try and think up a Harry Potter themed dish to honour the conclusion of our journey through the J.K. Rowling universe but nothing I found seemed quite right. As fate would have it, when I decided to make these doughnuts Saturday afternoon and took a closer look at the recipe I saw it was written by one Ginerva Iverson. Ginerva (Ginny) Weasley becomes Mrs. Harry Potter at the close of Deathly Hallows Part II. Coincidence? Not on this blog.

This recipe comes from Food & Wine magazine, which I've only recently discovered thanks to my friends James & Lisa who always bring me food magazines when they come to visit. (I like it when they visit, for so many reasons.) You need to have some time on your hands to make these doughnuts because yeast is involved, which means you have to hurry up and wait for things to happen. You begin, appropriately enough, by making the 'starter':

Starter
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

In a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix in the flour. Cover with plastic and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 hour.

I've already mentioned it's darn hot around here lately. We've been keeping the house fairly cool thanks to air conditioning but David insists (insists..complains...it's a fine line) our room is the hottest in the house, no matter how high we have the air conditioning cranked. Which doesn't make for comfortable sleeping conditions, but when tasked with finding an appropriate place for your doughnut starter to rise (as above, in a warm place)...I must admit that David's side of the bed was the first place that came to mind. So that's where my starter went for an hour. Once your starter has doubled in size in whatever warm place you have in your house you can move on to making the dough:

Dough
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons milk, warmed
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar

In a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook, dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the flour, salt, egg yolks, butter, sugar and the starter and mix until the dough forms a ball. Scrape the dough into a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 hour.

Once you finish making your dough, it's back up to the bedroom (i.e. warm place) for an hour. Funny that no one asked me why I was transporting bowls of dough up and down the stairs all afternoon. Seems my boys know me well enough not to ask. Now it's time to make your jam:

Jam
1 pint red raspberries (12 ounces)
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for coating

In a saucepan, simmer the raspberries with the 1 1/2 cups of sugar over moderate heat until thickened, about 25 minutes. Scrape the jam into a bowl and let cool for 1 hour.

Could anything be easier? Or better? Fresh raspberries are great on their own - simmer them with sugar for twenty minutes or so and good things happen. I don't know what I'm doing to do with all this raspberry goodness but I must make sure it doesn't go to waste.

By the time you've finished your jam you can move on to preparing the dough for frying. I rolled it out on a lightly floured surface and proceeded to cut out 1 inch rounds. I don't have a 1 inch round cookie cutter so I had to improvise. Turns out the cap from your average water bottle is 1 inch across. So that's what I used:

These little circles were placed on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then I covered them with a damp towel and let them sit for 15 minutes. During which time I prepared my frying oil. The recipe calls for you to put 1 inch of vegetable oil in a saucepan and heat to 325 degrees. Once your oil is hot enough, plop in the rounds and let them fry for 2 minutes. Which looks like this:

I admit to being very skeptical that my flat little circles were going to become round doughnut holes. Yes, they do look like chicken balls. Patience - after a few more steps they will indeed look (and taste) like doughnuts. Promise.

After two minutes I used a slotted spoon to scoop my doughnut holes out of their oil spa. I drained them on cookie racks which were set over paper towels to catch any grease drips. Then I rolled each one (still hot/warm) in granulated sugar. It took two rounds to fry all of my dough. Which means that about four hours after I started making my doughnut holes it took all of four minutes to fry them. And about four seconds to devour them because they were gooood:

You can just pop a sugar coated piece of delight straight into your mouth or take the time to dip your doughnut in fresh raspberry jam. Either way, you really can't go wrong. Of course, being Canadian one is inclined to compare these to Timbits. They are smaller, for sure, but just as tasty. Tastier, actually, owing to the satisfaction of having made them myself. (Yes, I know how much a snack pack of Timbits costs and how quickly and effortlessly they may be acquired. Obviously you haven't read my Marshmallows post.) I would suggest eating these as soon as you can after they are made. They are best when they are warm. The jam dresses them up a bit but isn't strictly necessary. David conceded to try one with jam even though he always avoids Timbits with jam. Mostly because Timbits with jam sneak up on you, the jam squirting into your mouth in a random way as you pop Timbits into your mouth while heading down the highway (we tend to save Timbit purchases for road trips). Which reminds me of Freshen-Up gum. Do you remember Freshen-Up gum? The gum that had an oozy centre that squirted into your mouth as you chew? I doubt David has fond memories of Freshen-Up gum either. So. Doughnut holes. I may just have to branch out and try doughnuts next time....

Corn Chowder

2011-07-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

It's hotter than stink outside - anyone up for a nice steaming bowl of corn chowder? To be honest, I find the heat takes away my appetite altogether. I shouldn't admit that two nights this week I had a milkshake for dinner. Not one of those low calorie jobs in a can, either. A full-fat assault that you can feel going straight to your hips while you're drinking it.

Corn chowder happened at our house because I had a few ears of sweet corn left over from the weekend, the kids were in bed and David was in Chicago on a business trip. I wanted something fun and/or relaxing to do but didn't feel like reading and I just can't get interested in TV any more. So this is how I chose to amuse myself - by rustling through my fridge and pantry to try to figure out what I can make with ingredients I have on hand.

Turns out I had what I needed to make a half batch of Corn Chowder as advertised on the blog A Full Measure of Happiness under a great post titled 'Shuck It'. This recipe is adapted from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Otherwise known as the people who bring you Cook's Illustrated. My love of the fine folks who are America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated is well documented on this blog. (Some day I'll write a post on the Christmas I made gravy using a Cook's Illustrated recipe. I could have served it as soup it was so good.) I further adapted this recipe to suit what I had on hand. Here is what you should do, if you're doing things properly and not on a whim. (My changes are included in the recipe below in italics.)

Corn Chowder (Adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)

6 ears of corn, shucked and rinsed (I used 3 ears, one that had already been cooked and 2 raw)
4 ounces chicken or turkey, cooked and chopped (Didn't have on hand but would make a great addition)
1 T canola or olive oil
1 onion, minced
1 clove of garlic
3 T all-purpose flour
2 C chicken broth
1 1/2 C skim milk
2 red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed (I used 2 cups of mini white potatoes which I scrubbed and cubed)
2 bay leaves (I have a thing about bay leaves. Not a fan. Yes, there's a reason but this really isn't the time or place to share why - focus on the chowder)
1/2 C heavy cream
1 t minced fresh thyme (Dried will do - it's what I had)
2 T minced fresh parsley (No parsley on hand either, fresh or dried)
salt and pepper to taste

To prepare the corn, cut the kernels from two of the ears and set aside. Grate the remaining ears against the large holes of a box grater into a bowl, and scrape the ears with the back side of a butter knife to get every last bit of pulp. This helps to release starch from the corn, which will thicken the chowder. (It will also make a bit of a mess if you aren't careful. For the record, I'm not careful.)

Cook the onion in the oil over medium heat until soft, about five minutes. Add the chicken and garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. (Obviously I just added the garlic) Stir in the flour and cook for one minute, then slowly stir in the broth and milk, scraping up any browned bits. Add the potatoes, ~~bay leaves~~, thyme, and grated corn. (I wasn't fully paying attention here because I started watching an episode of Monk on Netflix and got distracted, so added all the corn - grated and cut off of the cob. Didn't appear to ruin the end result). Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are nearly tender, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the remaining corn kernels and cream. Simmer until the corn kernels are tender but still a bit crunchy, about five minutes. Remove the ~~bay leaves~~ and add parsley, salt, and pepper to taste before serving.

I really, really liked this chowder. I was pleasantly surprised by how much. It's true that when you cook with ingredients that are in season the food you make tastes that much better. The fresh corn made the chowder nice and sweet and despite my adding the cut kernels before I was meant to, they still had great crunch. I would recommend following the actual recipe instead of plodding along like I did, but I enjoyed what I created nonetheless.

Hot corn chowder isn't likely to make you many friends on a hot Summer night but on a cool August evening it would be very welcome with some nice fresh bread or rolls. As it is, we're under a heat advisory in my neck of the woods. I put up a huge inflatable water slide/ wading pool for the kids in the yard tonight and after checking that no neighbours were within viewing range, took a slide down myself. That's how hot it is - I'm willing to humiliate myself to stay cool. Other ways to stay cool? Remember what the backyard looked like in December:

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

2011-07-19T19:23:00.000-04:00

This oozy, gooey, delicious crisp tastes just as much like Summer as the Cucumber, Tomato and Feta salad I made on the weekend. I have walked by fresh rhubarb at the grocery store for weeks now without putting some in the cart. I'm so glad I finally decided to bring some home. I didn't really know what I was going to do with it but that's half the fun. I toyed with making some kind of barbecue sauce or maybe a syrup for a cold drink but then when I was putting away some frozen lemonade I bumped up against a large bag of strawberries from Heeman's I had put in the freezer a couple of weeks ago. So I decided to keep it traditional and go for a crisp.

I used the Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp recipe featured on the Foodland Ontario website for this particular effort. I let the strawberries thaw a bit but basically cut them up frozen. Then I cut up my rhubarb, added it to the strawberries along with some (okay - a lot of) sugar and a little flour and cinnamon. The topping was about as effortless as the fruit base. Some melted butter, flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon are mixed together and then spread over the fruit, which is placed in a greased 13x9 baking dish. The ratio of topping to fruit in this recipe is perfect. Sometimes I find a crisp recipe underwhelms me and it's usually because the crisp topping is too thin or too thick. This was Goldilocks good, as in "just right". It presents a bit runny, as you can see above, but that isn't anything that a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream won't help mop up in your bowl. Daniel loved this crisp which I must admit I sold to him as strawberry, period end stop, crisp. David has an aversion to rhubarb so refused to try it and Patrick isn't sold on crisps. So Daniel and I had the delightful task of finishing off the whole 13x9 pan. Which we did. Perfect end to a hot Summer night.

Market Vegetables

2011-07-17T19:14:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that we're already mid-way through July. Summer seems to be flying by. One thing that's wonderful about the Summer marching on is the different produce to choose from at the market every Saturday. This Saturday we went to the St. Jacob's market, which was busy but full of wonderful things. David and I used to visit the market as a treat when we were students at Laurier. I wasn't as much of a cook then as I am now or I would have made the most of having such an abundance of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat right on my doorstep. We saw an amazing variety of fresh foods at the market. Apples that were literally as big as David's fist. Lemonade served up in a cup big enough for the whole family. Mini donuts fried and sugared right in front of our eyes (yes, we bought a half dozen and devoured them in seconds). We came home with what I imagine is the first of this season's sweet corn. I boiled it up tonight (6 minutes in boiling, salted water) as part of our Sunday dinner which relied heavily on the current fresh produce offerings of the region.

In addition to the corn I also made a Cucumber Tomato Salad from Epicurious that I tried on Thursday and had to have again, it was so good. I know that I'll want to make this salad again when tomatoes and cucumbers aren't in season and it won't be nearly as good, so I'll try to talk myself out of it since I think this salad really requires the best cucumber and tomato you can find. David isn't an olive fan so I kept some of the cucumber/tomato/feta mixture separate for him when I served it this week with some grilled lamb kebabs. It was the perfect accompaniment to the lamb but went just as well tonight with some boiled potatoes, sweet corn and grilled sausage. I halved the recipe with no noticeable difference to the final product. This is a dish that tastes just. like. Summer.

Cucumber, Tomato and Feta Salad - from Epicurious

6 cups coarsely chopped English hothouse or Persian cucumbers (about 2 pounds total)
2 large tomatoes (about 1 pound total), coarsely chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 cup assorted pitted olives (such as Kalamata or Gaeta), halved
1 7-ounce package feta, crumbled, divided
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, olives, half of feta, and mint in a large bowl. Whisk oil and lemon juice in a small bowl; season dressing with salt and pepper. Pour dressing over salad; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle remaining half of feta over and serve.

Pasta Al Pomodoro - or, the end of the reign of V8

2011-07-14T21:03:00.000-04:00

When Daniel finally got himself established on solid foods I decided to try feeding him pasta. I figured he couldn't choke on it and who doesn't like pasta? (Turns out Patrick, my second son. Not a great pasta lover. However he likes mashed potatoes where Daniel does not. Who doesn't like mashed potatoes? But I digress.) My decision to introduce pasta was likely an excuse for me to buy a package of the cute alphabet-shaped pasta that caught my eye at the grocery store. I know that a lot of kids are introduced to pasta with a bit of butter or Parmesan cheese for flavour but I decided to go the traditional 'red sauce' route for Daniel and served him his first bowl of pasta drenched in V8 juice. I think I figured that the addition of the V8 juice would count as a serving of vegetables. It was a raging success. In the last seven and a half years he must have eaten a hundred.....zillion bowls of alphabet pasta.

The only downside to V8 pasta is that Daniel refused to budge on this choice of pasta sauce for the next...well...seven and a half years. So when I make spaghetti, instead of eating the perfectly respectable sauce I've made he'll ask for a V8. When we go to a restaurant he'll order spaghetti, no sauce, with a side of V8. Which can take some explaining, particularly if your waiter is childless and has no context for the food rituals and/or obsessions of small children. Over the years we have tried to persuade Daniel to break from his V8 habit and try other kinds of pasta sauce (still in the tomato family - we aren't looking for miracles here). He has resisted. Or he had resisted, up until last night. Last night I made Pasta Al Pomodoro.

What attracted me to this recipe was its simplicity, both of ingredients and method. All that is required is a can of peeled, whole tomatoes, some onion, garlic and basil. Pasta, of course is also a given (I went with spaghetti) and you need some grated Parmesan cheese and butter to finish things off. You start your sauce by heating up some olive oil and gently sauteing some minced onion in a large skillet. Once the onions are soft you add in the garlic. The tomatoes get pureed in your food processor (or blender, since I am sadly without a food processor) and added to the lovely onion/garlic combo, which can be taken up a notch with the addition of some red pepper flakes, which I omitted. The sauce bubbles away so the flavours can meld and you can cook your pasta. That's pretty much it. You've made your sauce.

Once the pasta is ready, it gets added to the bubbling sauce (still in the skillet) along with the Parmesan and butter. (There's a whole step about fresh basil leaves that takes place as well. I used dried basil, adding it near the end of the whole 'sauce bubbles away' stage. I'm sure the fresh basil would also be lovely.) Dust with more grated Parmesan and there you have it. In the time it takes to open a can of V8 you have a lovely (kid friendly) tomato sauce. Okay. It might have taken a bit longer than that but you get the idea. This dish doesn't take long and the result is worth the bit of effort and having to clean the blender.

Obviously my favourite part of this dish is that Daniel loved it. He did have his traditional bowl of pasta with V8 but conceded to try my version as well. After a taste he asked for his own helping of 'grown up spaghetti'. Definitely a recipe I'll be adding to my regular rotation.

Pasta Al Pomodoro - from Epicurious

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 28 ounce can peeled tomatoes, puréed in a food processor
Kosher salt
3 large fresh basil sprigs
12 ounces bucatini or spaghetti
2 tablespoons cubed unsalted butter
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan or Pecorino

Heat extra-virgin olive oil in a 12" skillet over medium-low heat. Add minced onion and cook, stirring, until soft, about 12 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 2-4 minutes. Add crushed red pepper flakes; cook for 1 minute more. Increase heat to medium, add puréed tomatoes and season lightly with kosher salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens slightly and the flavors meld, about 20 minutes. Remove pan from heat, stir in basil sprigs, and set aside.

Meanwhile, bring water to a boil in a 5-quart pot. Season with salt; add spaghetti or bucatini and cook, stirring occasionally, until about 2 minutes before tender. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.

Discard basil and heat skillet over high heat. Stir in reserved pasta water to loosen sauce (this didn't seem necessary); bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook, stirring, until sauce coats pasta and pasta is al dente, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat; add butter and cheese; toss until cheese melts. Transfer to warm bowls; serve with more cheese, if desired.

Marshmallows

2011-07-12T16:43:00.001-04:00

I like to think of myself as a curious person. Curious as in 'filled with curiousity' rather than, you know, an odd duck. I lead with this information to explain why I would bother making something that retails for about two bucks a bag at the local supermarket. When I told David I wanted to try making marshmallows that was the first thing he said: "You can buy them for 2 bucks at Loblaws. Why bother?". Why indeed?

I can't really explain why, but every so often an idea pops into my head and I decide 'I should try that.'. Or rather, I must try that. (I can get sort of obsessive about some things.) So I do. I have to, you see. Sometimes my experiments result in long term commitments, like when I decided I had to borrow my brother's 'Crowded House' CD in 1991 and have a listen. (Distant Sun is, to this day, my favourite song.) About a week or two ago 'I should make marshmallows' popped into my head. Rather than rationalise or wonder why, I just decided to do.

Marshmallows aren't difficult. They don't require a lot of fancy ingredients. The recipe I choose to use requires a stand mixer, which certainly seemed to make the whole egg-white-beating stage of the recipe go smoothly. (Until I added the sugar syrup - then things turned sticky. But in a good way.) After having wonderful luck with his chocolate sauce recipe I returned to the blog of David Lebovitz for this marshmallow recipe. The recipe instructions end with the following statement:

"There’s really just three steps to whipping up a batch of marshmallows; Make a syrup, whip the egg whites, then pour the syrup and gelatin into the whites while whipping. Once that’s done, you can cut or snip them into any size or shape. What are you waiting for?"

Honestly, he had me earlier on in his post, at "...pillowy softness.." and "...tender sweetness...". But on top of that he made things sound - and look - so easy. And let me tell you, this recipe totally delivered. The hardest part was separating the eggs. Here's how it works:

Ingredients:
2 envelopes (17g) powdered gelatin
(I used two envelopes worth of Knox gelatine from a 28g box of four envelopes)
1/2 cup (125ml) + 1/3 cup (80ml) cold water
1 cup (200g) sugar
1/3 cup (100g) light corn syrup
4 large egg whites (1/2 cup, 110g), at room temperature
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Marshmallow Mix
One part corn starch (or potato starch), one part powdered sugar (about 1 cup, 140g, each)

Directions
1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the 1/2 cup (125ml) of cold water to dissolve and soften.

2. In a small saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, mix the sugar and corn syrup with 1/3 cup (80ml) of water. Place over medium-to-high heat. (Note that you will use this saucepan twice, to make the syrup and melt the gelatin, eliminating the need to wash it between uses).

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, pour in the egg whites and beat on low speed until frothy. Add the pinch of salt.

4. When the syrup reaches about 210ºF (99ºC), increase the speed of the mixer to high and beat the whites until they are thick and fluffy.

5. When the syrup reaches 245ºF (118ºC), slowly pour the hot syrup into the whites, pouring so that the syrup does not fall on the whisk since some of the syrup will splatter and stick to the sides of the bowl.
(I was afraid I would misjudge frothy, thick and fluffy (as above in 3. and 4.) but I followed the temp directions to the letter and all was well. Whew.)

6. Scrape the gelatin and water into the pan that you used for the syrup and swirl it to dissolve. (There should still be residual heat left in the pan from making the syrup in it to dissolve it). (Indeed there was.)

Pour the liquified gelatin slowly into the whites as they are whipping. Add the vanilla extract and continue to whip for 5 minutes, until the mixture is feels completely cool when you touch the outside of the bowl. (I kept mine whipping for about 7 minutes, as the bowl still felt warm to me after 5 minutes.)

Here's how things looked at this stage:

I will admit to dipping my finger in the bowl for a quick taste test at this point. I was actually kind of shocked by the result of my whipping and boiling and pouring and whipping. Marshmallow! Sweet, sticky, with just a hint of vanilla. I was a bit giddy at this point and made the boys try it too just to reassure myself that I wasn't imagining things. They were skeptical but had to agree - it was marshmallow, and darn good marshmallow too.

7. Dust a baking sheet evenly and completely with a generous layer of the marshmallow mixture. (I use a sifter to do this.) (So did I. Worked great but I suspect I made my layer too generous as I needed to make more marshmallow mix to finish the recipe!) Make sure there are absolutely no bare spots.

8. Use a spatula to spread the marshmallows in a layer on the pan. (I knew this step would be trouble. I'll just say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.) Allow to dry for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, uncovered. (I didn't have time on my side here. My marshmallows sat for exactly four hours. Later on they seemed a bit wet - I bet letting them sit overnight would have solved that problem.)

9. Put about 1 cup (140g) of the marshmallow mixture into a large bowl. (I used kitchen scissors and a knife to cut my marshmallows into squares. Squares for s'more making.) Shake the marshmallows vigorously in a wire strainer to remove the excess powder. Alternatively, you can dust a baking sheet and put scoops of the marshmallow on it, and let them cool.

Storage: The marshmallows can be made up to one week in advance, and stored in an airtight container.

Which looks something like this:

It's true. Making marshmallows isn't hard at all. And now that I've done it I can see me revisiting this post in the Winter to make homemade marshmallows for our steaming cups of hot chocolate. But this is July - we're steaming in a different way. Let's not think about Winter quite yet.

There can really only be one reason for making marshmallows in July and that would be for s'mores. Indeed, my very first batch of marshmallows were destined for s'more greatness. And great they were. More on that in a later post when the subject will be cottage food!

Frittata!

2011-07-04T17:47:00.001-04:00

Frittata seems to me to be one of those words that needs an exclamation mark. Kind of like ole. Ole doesn't look right unless it's written ole! Am I right?

I'm tardy with Canada Day greetings but I have a good excuse. On Friday David and I completed our first (well - second) 10K. Our time was 1h3m but our goal wasn't a fast time, it was to run the whole race (no matter how slow) and to finish. Which we did! The course was a bit more hill-filled than the Terry Fox 10K we completed back in the Fall but we persevered. (I say this is our first 10K because when we did the Terry Fox run we didn't set out to do the 10K distance. It just sort of happened.) After our triumph we headed back to London (the 10K was part of the Highland Games in Embro) to meet up with family. And then we ate. And ate. And ate some more. My parents brought the food and when they bring food they mean business. Which means I have lots of leftovers. In particular lots of veggie leftovers since we had a large vegetable tray, many of which are of a type that never make it into my own grocery cart. (Such as radishes..what am I going to do with a half bag of radishes?) One of my favourite things to make with leftover veggies is frittata. It's so easy and perfect for a hot Summer evening. Here's how I made this one:

The veggies I was aiming to use up included a dozen mushrooms and half a yellow pepper. I also had some leftover chives. I always have eggs and mozzarella cheese on hand. (I considered the radishes and then decided this wasn't the time or place for that particular experiment.) So. What I did. I started by cutting up a small onion. About 1/4 cup worth. Then I sliced my mushrooms and diced my pepper. I heated some olive oil in a 10 inch skillet and once it was hot, added the onion, stirring for 1 minute, followed by the veggies for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, I beat six eggs combined with a cup of mozzarella cheese and a handful of chopped chives. Once the veggies were softened I poured in the egg mixture. The whole shebang cooked on medium low heat for about 5 minutes. Then I transferred it to the oven to broil the whole works for another 2 minutes.

Voila. Frittata! All that is left to do is remove your frying pan from the oven with an oven mitt and put another oven mitt over the pan handle immediately. As in right away. Otherwise you might forget how hot the handle is, get out the toaster to make toast then grab the frying pan with your bare hand to shake the frittata onto a plate. Which will burn you. Don't say you haven't been warned.

So the basic idea here is you can make a simple dinner if you can find 6 eggs, 1 cup of cheese, a bit of onion and 1 1/2 cups of veggies. Or whatever you have in the fridge that seems appealing. I almost put in some leftover steak and roasted potatoes we had leftover from Sunday dinner but I decided to save those for David. He doesn't enjoy my frittata experiments as much as I enjoy them. And I just signed him up for another 10K run in the Fall so I need to show him some love. This particular frittata will likely be designated breakfast this week. A wedge served between toast is a great way to start the morning.

Bourbon Molasses Chicken Drumsticks

2011-06-29T21:35:00.000-04:00

The last two years we have hosted the annual 'Friends Cottage Weekend' we have been blessed with perfect weather. We knew our luck would change eventually. Turns out, this was the year. Wet, wetter and wettest would be the best way to describe our Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (That's not totally fair. It began to clear up Sunday as we pulled away from the cottage. Of course.) All of the signs that our good weather streak was about to be broken were there. The one I noticed in particular was the weather forecast. All was not lost though. The kids still went outside and played baseball. The canoe was taken for a spin around the lake. And we still managed to BBQ.

The more that I have pushed myself to experiment in the kitchen the less squeamish I have become about handling things like raw meat and/or poultry. However the thought of seasoning a dozen chicken drumsticks destined for the grill by rubbing a mixture of salt and pepper under their skin...it lacked appeal. So I conscripted by favourite sous-chef James to do the icky part for me. Okay. I may also have asked him to, you know, actually BBQ the chicken as well. But I did make the sauce, which was gorgeous. I whipped it up in the morning and it was a cinch.

It starts, as most good things do, with butter which I was pleased to find on hand at the cottage since this was one ingredient I hadn't thought to bring myself. I always have butter on hand but I know that many households do not, opting instead for various spreads that masquerade as butter. (If that sounded judgemental it might have been. A little. Don't get me started on Miracle Whip versus mayonnaise.) So. Melt the butter, add some chopped onion and stir. I was glad I was alone in the cottage during this step because while I love the smell of onions frying in butter I'm sure others could do without that particular odour on a (wet, soggy) Saturday morning. Next dump in some ketchup, molasses and brown sugar. A bit of wooster and yellow mustard join the party next followed by black pepper and chili powder. Stir, stir, stir, heat, heat, heat then add some bourbon. Or whatever you find in the alcohol cupboard at the cottage that approximates bourbon. Like whiskey. Done. Now, when you're actually ready to get dinner on the table you get your sous-chef to season and grill the chicken and slather on some sauce during the last few minutes of grilling. You end up with this:

I was very pleased with how this chicken turned out. I baked some chicken drumsticks a while back and while they were good they were nowhere near the same taste as these. I suspect that seasoning the chicken made a difference (thanks James!) and the sauce was certainly no slouch. You can definitely taste the molasses in this sauce but there is also a nice sweetness from the sugar, and the wooster shows up to play as well. It's quite rich. I put some aside to pass at the table but I think most people were satisfied by what came off the grill. These were definitely my favourite part of the cottage dinner table this year. Except, of course, for the people around the table.

Bourbon-Molasses Chicken Drumsticks - from Epicurious

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup minced onion
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup bourbon
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
12 chicken drumsticks

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, about 6 minutes. Add next 5 ingredients, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and chili powder. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Stir in bourbon; cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Season with salt. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Mix 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in bowl. Loosen skin on drumsticks. Rub salt and pepper mixture under skin without tearing skin. Cover; let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Grill drumsticks until skin is crisp and juices run clear, turning to cook all sides, about 25 minutes. Transfer 1/2 cup barbecue sauce to small bowl; reserve. Brush drumsticks with remaining sauce and cook until glaze forms, about 3 minutes longer. Transfer drumsticks to platter and serve with reserved sauce.

Happy Father's Day! (Now with root beer)

2011-06-20T17:43:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the dinner edition of Father's Day, brought to you by Dad's Root Beer:

Yup, I went there. Totally predictable but totally irresistible. Like we could have Barbecue Beefwiches on the patio on a spectacular Sunday (Father's Day) evening and not have Dad's root beer to go with? In super-fabulous, authentic soda fountain-esque glasses, with ice, no less.

So. Barbecue Beefwiches. We first made this recipe back in August '04 for Daniel's birthday. It's a great dish when you need to feed a crowd with a minimum of fuss. The beef simmers on the stove top for quite a while (four hours to be exact) but it doesn't heat up the kitchen or cause you untold worry for those nervous-that- you're-going-to-run-out-of-propane or scorch-your-roast-over-too-high-heat-on-your (unpredictable, needs to be replaced) BBQ-types. Here is what you need to make a mean BBQ Beefwich:

BBQ Beefwiches adapted from Cooking Light Family Favorites Cookbook

1 3-pound lean beef rump roast
cooking spray
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp red wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar will do in a pinch)
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
dash or two of garlic salt

Coat a dutch oven with cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Add beef roast, cook until browned on all sides turning often. Remove roast from dutch oven. Wipe out drippings from dutch oven with paper towels if necessary. Combine ketchup through garlic salt. Return roast to dutch oven and pour ketchup mixture over. (I just mixed the ketchup etc. in the dutch oven then plunked the roast back in.). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer four hours until meat is tender. Remove roast from dutch oven and let cool slightly. Using two forks shred meat and return to dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium heat until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally. Serve on hamburger buns.

You'll see that I served our BBQ Beefwiches with a side of coleslaw and potato salad on my tacky Chinese restaurant plates. If you're feeling really daring, put the coleslaw right on top of your beef. Go ahead - it's seriously good. Adds some nice crunch and the sour of the slaw plays off the sweet of the meat sauce. The coleslaw recipe I used is already available on my blog here. The potato salad recipe was a store bought convenience. If I was serious about my potato salad I would have made this version. These sandwiches might best be described as up-market sloppy joes. David never fails to enjoy them and we'll have leftovers for a couple of nights so I don't have to make dinner a few times this week. Everyone happy.

Happy Father's Day! (Now with bacon)

2011-06-19T15:18:00.000-04:00

Nothing says Father's Day quite like bacon, right? The dad of this house loves bacon so that's what was served this morning, with a side of pancakes and maple syrup. Because heaven must be something like when your bacon gets accidentally dipped in maple syrup. It's sweet, it's salty - it's perfection. We make a lot of bacon at our house but I always hate cleaning up the greasy mess that results from a good fry-up. Which is why I was only too happy to recently switch to the 'make your bacon in the oven' team. All you do is preheat your oven to 400 degrees, line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and lay out your bacon on said baking sheet. Put your bacon in the oven for 5-6 minutes, rotate the pan then bake for 5-6 minutes longer. The result will be perfect bacon. Unless you like your bacon on the crispy side. Which I don't. However if you do, just leave it in longer.

We will, of course, also have a Sunday dinner fit to honour our most favouritest dad, who received much praise and thanks today from his biggest fans. Patrick drew/coloured a superhero themed card at school which was lovely and then kind of hilarious when he apologized for making Daddy's smile so big. (Daddy does often present with a scowl, but don't let that fool you. He's a teddy bear.) As for Daniel, he noted in his card that without daddy '...he'd likely be like those people collecting money in cups outside of Tim Horton's'. All-righty then. I'm not sure what to make of the fact that my eight year old is worried he may someday be homeless and without any means of supporting himself. Until then the least I can do is give him a good breakfast.

Strawberry Jam

2011-06-12T19:21:00.001-04:00

Local berries are available here in SW Ontario, so we loaded up the car and went to Heeman's, our favourite berry place, to pick up a flat. Yup, a flat. Cause when we do berries, we go big or go home. Funny story about Heeman's. A couple of years ago David went on a field trip with Patrick to O'Shea's, another lovely local farm operation. Apparently whenever the poor guide tried to talk about some aspect of the farm, Patrick kept asking her if she knew about Heeman's. Strawberries? They have those at Heeman's. Flowers? We get those at Heeman's. A few of the parents told me later it was one of the most amusing field trips they had been on, because Patrick wouldn't shut up about Heeman's and it was putting the guide into a bit of a fluster. Which sounds a lot like Patrick. He's very chatty and does fluster like no one else.

We managed to eat quite a few quarts of berries this weekend. I froze two or three and made jam out of a few as well. I haven't made strawberry jam in years. The recipe I used was from the back of a packet of gelling powder from Bernardin I found in my pantry that I may have bought last Spring when I was going to make jam. (But didn't, obviously.) The packet didn't have an expiry date and seemed to be made up of ingredients designed to withstand nuclear fall-out, so I decided it was safe to use. And the resulting jam sure tastes good.

I even went to market to buy some fresh bread to try out my jam experiment. The bread was also awesome, courtesy of Red Cat Farm Bakery in Goderich. (In addition to the bread they make wonderful cinnamon buns. And chocolate rolls. And I may have tried a pretzel too. Don't judge me too harshly.) Now, if you visit this blog regularly you may notice something different about this picture. Can you spot it? That's right - a patterned, colourful plate! I'm usually a stickler for white dishes but something happened last weekend after our patio supper. I became obsessed with finding Summer dishes suitable for enjoying dinner alfresco. I thought about buying plastic/melamine then found too many websites telling me about all of the toxins found in this kind of dinnerware. So I went for an eclectic mix of good old fashioned china plates, all of which are cheap enough that if they break I won't be too bent out of shape. Likely painted with lead-based paint but I adore them in all of their mis-matched glory. David doesn't get Summer dishes but is being a good sport about it. Even if he did tell me at dinner tonight that our table looked like a Chinese restaurant from the 70's. I'm choosing to take that as a compliment.

(As for the jam, there isn't really much of a recipe to share. I cut up 4 cups of strawberries, sprinkled them with a cup and a half of white sugar, stirred gently to combine then used the gelling powder as per the instructions on the packet.)

Patio Ribs

2011-06-08T21:11:00.000-04:00

We had our Sunday dinner on the patio this week. It was a no-brainer - perfect weather and ribs on the menu. It was a good dinner. David found Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce at the grocery store for the ribs. I made cornbread, garlic mashed potatoes and creamy coleslaw to round out the plate. There were brownies for dessert, left over from Saturday.

It felt so much like Summer vacation I felt bad about waking the boys up Monday morning for school, but the reality is we still have a month to go and Daniel is knee deep in EQAO testing this week. So I sent him off to school with a tummy full of buttermilk pancakes. Because it's never too soon to start eating emotionally, right?

Super Saturday

2011-06-04T21:55:00.000-04:00

What does the perfect Saturday look like? It starts with popcorn for breakfast with your favourite 8 year old watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on the big screen. Then you come home and the grocery shopping is done and lunch is made. You think about going for a run, but instead have a nap with your favourite nap partner, making a promise you'll run tomorrow. You wake up and dinner is served. There are drumsticks (the ice cream kind) for dessert, because that's what happens when David has free reign at the grocery store. The kitchen gets cleaned up quickly then you go for a bike ride to the park.

No one scrapes a knee or steers into their brother or forgets to stop at the corner when they bike ahead. It doesn't rain even though it looks like it might. You come home and water the garden because after a long Winter the house is finally settling in to the idea of welcoming Spring and is all kinds of green.

Then, just when you think things can't get any better, warm from the oven brownies appear.

And you remember that you picked up a new book from the library today when you were returning books that aren't even due back until Monday, so for once you won't have any fines (bad librarian). Super Saturday. It happens sometimes.

Chocolate Brownies - from Anna Olson

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease an 8 x 11 inch baking pan.

Melt butter (over stove or in microwave) and pour into a larger bowl. Sift cocoa into butter and stir in. Stir in sugar.

Add eggs to mixture, blending well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt (do not sift). Add to cocoa mixture and blend.

Pour into pan and bake for 35 minutes, until firm when touched.

Pasta with Asparagus, Pancetta and Pine Nuts

2011-05-29T18:58:00.000-04:00

Fresh off my other recent pasta triumph (Lemon Spaghetti) the pasta hits just keep on comin'. This week I made an awesome (and easy) weeknight pasta featuring asparagus, pancetta and pine nuts (oh - and lemon too!):

We are rather enjoying the whole pasta + lemon combination at our house right now. This dish came together with a minimum of prep and fuss - the asparagus cooks with the pasta and you can toast your pine nuts and roast your pancetta on one baking sheet to minimize your dirty dishes. Toss in some lemon juice, olive oil and parmesan cheese and there you have it. Another pasta dish that your husband will think took you more time and energy than it really did. Unless he reads your blog.

Pasta with Asparagus, Pancetta and Pine Nuts from Cooking Light

8 ounces uncooked cavatappi pasta
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut diagonally into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 ounces diced pancetta
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; add asparagus to pan during last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain. Sprinkle pasta mixture with garlic; return to pan, and toss well.

3. Arrange pine nuts in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan. Bake at 400° for 3 minutes or until golden and fragrant, stirring occasionally. Place in a small bowl.

4. Increase oven temperature to 475°.

5. Arrange pancetta on jelly-roll pan. Bake at 475° for 6 minutes or until crisp.

6. Combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle over pasta mixture; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with pine nuts, pancetta, and cheese.

Note: Pine nuts are particularly delicious in this dish, but walnuts would also be tasty.

Reading Munchies

2011-05-27T21:50:00.001-04:00

Do you snack while you read? I do, sometimes. In fact I have a very clear (and dear) memory of reading V.C. Andrews novels lounging on the floor of my room while eating Hostess BBQ chips and drinking Welch's grape soda. I must have been around fourteen at the time. This memory horrifies me on a number of levels. Would I let my boys read V.C. Andrews at fourteen? Not on your life. And why was I drinking grape soda on the floor of my white carpeted room? And those chips! I would eat an entire big bag by myself in one sitting. And I was skinny as a rail. I miss my fourteen year old self. My fourteen year old self loved the 'Flowers in the Attic' series. I haven't thought about those books in years. I imagine if I still had this particular series (which I don't) the pages would be smeared with greasy, red fingerprints. And the occasional splatter of purple soda.

My tastes, both in terms of reading and reading snacks, have certainly evolved since I was fourteen. If you're really interested in what I like to read check out My Library Thing profile here: http://www.librarything.com/home/jlrobinson99. Of late I can't seem to stop reading mysteries, in particular Scandinavian / Icelandic themed mysteries. And I've only just discovered Agatha Christie, which is ridiculous since I am and always have been an avid reader, particularly of mysteries. I don't tend to snack when I read as much as I did when I was young. My metabolism can't take it, for one thing. However this past Monday I made the mistake of spending Victoria Day in the kitchen where I put together some snack mix that turned out to be the perfect reading companion. A small bowl that I set in the library ended up disappearing rather quickly and there was no mystery as to where it went. I was reading Laura Lippman's The Girl in the Green Raincoat which was perfect for a damp, drizzly May afternoon. A good book with a cup of tea and a bowl of Maple Soy Snack Mix, curled up in my library with my boys puttering around...doesn't get much better than that.

Super Simple Chocolate Sauce

2011-05-24T16:46:00.001-04:00

Last weekend I made Frozen Peanut Butter Pie. It was pretty good, although not as frozen as it needed to be when it was served. (Long story.) Short story - I wanted a simple chocolate sauce to drizzle over top of my Frozen Peanut Butter Pie, because nothing goes better with peanut butter than chocolate, IMHO. (And I was too lazy to bother shaving chocolate curls for the top of the pie as per the pie recipe.)

This wonderful, super simple recipe by David Lebovitz popped up a few times in my Internet quest for quick, easy chocolate sauce. It tastes divine, comes together using common pantry ingredients and did I mention it tastes divine? Even if you have no need for chocolate sauce, make some of this. Then eat it right out of the jar, like my dad did with his (already used) dessert fork. Making him the proud owner of a mostly full jar of chocolate sauce that I was going to eat straight out of the jar as soon as company left!! Boo!

The Best Chocolate Sauce
About 2 1/2 cups

1 cup (250 ml) water
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
1/2 cup (160 g) light corn syrup, agave nectar, or glucose
3/4 cup (75 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed)
2 ounces (55 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the water, sugar, corn syrup (or agave or glucose), and cocoa powder.

2. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it’s just begun to simmer and boil, remove from heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until melted.

Serving: You should let the Chocolate Sauce stand for a few hours before serving, which will give it time to thicken a bit.

Storage: Store the chocolate sauce in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Rewarm before serving.

Lemon Spaghetti

2011-05-18T18:23:00.000-04:00

There seem to be lots of people harshing on Gwyneth Paltrow of late. I can't turn around without stumbling on some newspaper or magazine piece about GP that vacillates between adoration and abhorrence. The woman introduced me to Forget You, so I hate to be too critical. (It's a superb running track. And a really great angry song, since you can get really potty-mouthed singing along if you reference the original version. In your head, of course.) Apparently GP has written a cookbook which partly explains the news coverage I've been seeing. I stumbled on her recipe for Spaghetti Limone Parmeggiano while searching Epicurious for dinner inspiration one night and made a mental note to try it. I'm a sucker for lemon but usually get my fix through desserts - think pie, bars and pudding. Why not lemon pasta?

I whipped up Spaghetti Limone Parmeggiano tonight and it was, as promised, simple but quite delicious. All you do is zest/juice a lemon, add some grated Parmesan cheese and olive oil and toss cooked spaghetti into the whole works. It's the kind of dish that one day I might recommend to my boys if they want to impress a girl with a meal. It tastes like more effort than it is. Add a nice salad and some fresh bread and she'd be swooning. Speaking of swooning, the first meal David ever made for me was spaghetti. He and a friend cooked it up in the lounge/kitchenette of their residence and served it to us (my roommate and I) in his dorm room, which they'd set up as a sort-of respectable dining space using a coffee table they had liberated from somewhere. There may have been candles. And a tablecloth, I think. I know Jimi Hendrix was there, because David's roommate had a rather prominent poster of JH on the wall that is forever burned into my brain.

I've decided to go with the more down-market name of 'Lemon Spaghetti' for this dish, since it's a weeknight and all and I'm not trying to impress anyone. We're not generally that fancy weeknights, although I'm quite pleased with myself this week. Monday I churned out honey baked chicken drumsticks with mashed potatoes and green beans and Tuesday I made bourbon flank steak with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. And now I've kept the streak alive with a very yummy pasta dish. I'm sure things will go downhill tomorrow. Toast, anyone?

Chickpea Pasta

2011-05-16T19:44:00.000-04:00

One of the food resolutions I made in January was to try and prepare more interesting vegetable dishes. We always have at least one vegetable with each meal but they are generally uninspired. Think your standard side of (boiled) peas, corn, carrots. I have also been known to roast a vegetable or two in my day (asparagus and cauliflower) but I never go all out and prepare a main course that one could consider vegetarian.

Lately a lot of my culinary experiments come about owing to some random ingredient I find hanging out in my pantry. In the case of Chickpea Pasta it was a can of chickpeas left over from my chili making phase this past Winter. I just happened to find it the day I went through one of my 'to try' recipe folders and found Penne with Chickpeas, Spinach and Roasted Asparagus, courtesy of Food and Wine magazine (LCBO). Penne with Chickpeas, Spinach and Roasted Asparagus is a much more elegant name than Chickpea Pasta but since the can of chickpeas really started the ball rolling, Chickpea Pasta it is.

I thought the Chickpea Pasta presented well:

And it would surely qualify as vegetarian. In addition to the spinach and asparagus (and chickpeas, natch) you'll find shredded carrot and sun dried tomatoes in that there bowl. David and I both had the same reaction to this dish. It was good, but the chickpeas were kind of distracting. David never met a legume he liked so he stick-handled most of his out of the way (in the nicest way possible, given as he is to generally praising anything I make). I was game to like the chickpeas but something about the texture, especially compared with the other elements of the dish, didn't work for me. Overall I enjoyed this pasta but wouldn't rush to make it again. So back to the veggie drawing board!

Crank up the heat...

2011-05-09T20:35:00.002-04:00

On Saturday night we pulled in to our driveway around 10:30 p.m. having left Locust Grove, Georgia earlier (way earlier) in the day at 5:00 a.m.. What made the trip bearable were the five glorious, sunny days we had just enjoyed in Orlando, Florida. After a long Canadian winter it was a well deserved break from reality. Except my reality is that I appear to have grown allergic to sunshine. I have always been sensitive to the sun but this was the first time in years that after one day of sunshine exposure my skin broke out into red (itchy) hives. Which was wonderfully ironic. I've been begging for sunshine and warmth for months. I get some and it turns out my Canadian-born self can't handle the heat, literally.

When you spend your vacation at a theme park you can't really expect much in the way of culinary delights. So I have very little to share about our food adventures while on holidays. Here are the culinary low-lights and high-lights. You can judge which is which.

Chick-fil-A. Please come to Canada, Chick-fil-A. Kentucky is about the northern-most Chick-fil-A we've been able to find. Amazing chicken sandwiches and a mean chicken fruit salad. Awesome lemonade. Free wi-fi. Clean bathrooms. I'm in.

We had a lovely moment at Cracker Barrel in somewhere-I've-forgotten-the-name-of Tennessee. A man came over as we were finishing our lunch and told us he had been watching us since we came in and he thought we had 'Just such a nice little family, he had to stop to say hello.' (Go back and say this with a slow Southern drawl). Which you could take as creepy (Dude - stop watching us!) or lovely, which is how I'm choosing to take it, given the kids had been in the car since 4:30 a.m. with no naps.

Old Port Royale Food Court (Caribbean Beach Resort). Not so much 'Caribbean' fare but points to Disney for trying to health things up. The kids had turkey, mashed potatoes and corn for dinner a couple of nights and all the lemonade they could drink thanks to a refillable-during-your-entire-stay Disney mug. Which we enjoyed on the patio, by the pool under some colourful umbrellas and palm trees...

Let's talk about lattes. I've grown accustomed to having one every morning that I prepare at home. Disney does not have good coffee meaning they do not have good lattes. Except at the Polynesian Resort but we weren't at the Polynesian resort. Next time, we will be.

Whispering Canyon Cafe all-you-care-to-enjoy skillet. I love Disney marketing. It isn't 'all-you-can-eat' it's 'all-you-care-to-enjoy'! This was our one splurge meal and it was goood. Ribs, fried chicken, beef brisket, baked beans, mashed potatoes (that made me want to lick my skillet) and corn bread. The kids ordered bottomless milkshakes. Bottomless. Milkshakes. They drank two. Each. I sampled both (strawberry and chocolate) and they were also gooood.

Bob Evans. We love Bob Evans. Because when you're only mid-way through Ohio (what is up with the size of Ohio?) and you have been eating on the road for a week, you want a vegetable. Patrick looked at the menu and ordered broccoli and banana bread. They also have KD (Kraft Dinner). Genuine KD, although it does seem to differ slightly from Canadian KD. I always order off of the kids menu (Turkey Lurkey) but the grown up menu is good too.

By Sunday I didn't have the energy to whip up Sunday dinner but we managed to pull together a respectable Mother's Day feast of gingered flank steak, baked potatoes and roasted asparagus.

Have I every told you how I roast asparagus? It seems like a rather random way to end this post but I can do random. This is a fool-proof method for roasting asparagus.

Roasted Asparagus
Heat oven to 500 degrees. (No, seriously - your oven will go that hot!) Snap woody ends off of asparagus and wash. Put some foil on a cookie sheet. Spread the washed asparagus on the foil-lined pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt/pepper. Roast in oven for 5 minutes. Serve immediately to rave reviews.

(Best) Carrot Cake (Ever)

2011-04-23T20:11:00.001-04:00

I was going to try a new Easter dessert this year after a few years of making carrot cake. But when I did a brief survey of the household I discovered (not surprisingly) that others had no interest in entertaining a new dessert. (We are a very consistent kind of household.) So I decided to take a different approach. If I was going to make carrot cake (again) I'd try a new recipe rather than use the same-old-same-old.

The same-old-same-old, it should be noted, produces a very respectable carrot cake. It's the first carrot cake recipe I ever tried and it's from the 1978 Optimist Club Cookbook that was produced as a fundraiser for hockey in my hometown. I would have been four when this particular cookbook was put together. My copy is a photocopy of the original that my mother bought. Whenever I flip through it I imagine the hours of work that must have gone in to its production, back when someone had to type out each recipe and format the pages 'by hand'. While I'm sure it was a labour of love I do have a few complaints. Often the recipes don't specify what size of pan to use, and the directions can be vague or in some cases missing altogether. Given that the recipes note the name of the contributor I assume that in the event someone was confused they would just phone up so and so and ask them 'What size of pans do you use to make your carrot cake Joyce/Ruth/Norma/Carol'? (I grew up in a very small town.)

This year I was very happy to stumble upon (Google style) a carrot cake recipe attributed to Cook's Illustrated, who we all know I adore. I have a number of CI cookbooks but not Baking Illustrated, which is where this recipe is from. The cake itself is perfectly spiced and the icing is wonderfully tangy. I didn't add raisins or nuts and I'm glad I didn't - this cake doesn't need such embellishments. Note that I mixed the batter in a stand mixer and didn't bother with the food processor. I grated my carrots on a regular ol' box grater. I didn't go so far as to double the icing but did make make an additional half recipe to sufficiently ice the cake. I made one 13x9 cake rather than 2-9 inch round layers. A 13x9 effort was much easier to transport and serve to the crowd I was feeding. The sign of a good cake? Not a lot of leftovers came home. All that's left is this teeny, tiny piece which is slightly fuzzed in my photo because miracle of miracles, the sun shone today. Just as I was taking this picture it streamed in through my kitchen window. That's right, it was actually warm outside. I played tennis and rode bikes with my kids and darn if I'm not a bit red in places from the sun's warm rays. An Easter miracle.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Baking Illustrated, by Cooks Illustrated

If you like nuts in your cake, stir 1 1/2 cups toasted chopped pecans or walnuts into the batter along with the carrots. Raisins are also a good addition; 1 cup can be added along with the carrots. If you add both nuts and raisins, the cake will need an additional 10 to 12 minutes in the oven. Below are instructions for using a hand-held or standing mixer.

Carrot Cake
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 pound medium carrots (6 to 7 carrots), peeled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil , safflower oil, or canola oil

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese , softened but still cool
5 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar (4 1/2 ounces)

Directions
1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13 by 9-inch baking pan (or 2, 9" round cake pans) with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottom of pan with parchment and spray parchment.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in large bowl; set aside.

3. In food processor fitted with large shredding disk (see below for mixer method), shred carrots (you should have about 3 cups); transfer carrots to bowl and set aside. Wipe out food processor workbowl and fit with metal blade. Process granulated and brown sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With machine running, add oil through feed tube in steady stream. Process until mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape mixture into medium bowl. Stir in carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Cool cake to room temperature in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours.

4. For the frosting (See below for mixer method): When cake is cool, process cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla in clean food processor workbowl until combined, about 5 seconds, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add confectioners' sugar and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.

5. Run paring knife around edge of cake to loosen from pan. Invert cake onto wire rack, peel off parchment, then invert again onto serving platter. Using icing spatula, spread frosting evenly over surface of cake. Cut into squares and serve. (Cover leftovers and refrigerate for up to 3 days.)

Hot Cross Buns

2011-04-17T11:33:00.000-04:00

I've never enjoyed cooking with yeast. I find I'm too impatient when it comes to waiting for the yeast to do its thing so I end up rushing the recipe which usually ends in disaster. Last night I found I had some time on my hands. Enough time to wait for yeast to get...yeasty. It's the playoffs and the Habs are still in the hunt so no plans were made to do anything other than sit in front the television. Which was nice. There was popcorn to be had, for one thing. And the boys are old enough now that they ask intelligent questions about the game that David is only too happy to answer. What's a girl to do when all of her boys are otherwise occupied for several hours? Make hot cross buns, of course!

There are a lot of recipes out there for hot cross buns. The one I decided to try is featured on a blog called Cookin' Canuck: http://www.cookincanuck.com/2010/03/hot-cross-buns-recipe-for-good-friday/. When I saw that the recipe was adapted from America's Test Kitchen I was in. ATK know their stuff. And when I'm cooking (baking) something I'm not all that confident about, I want to use a recipe that is as close to no-fail as possible. That's what you get with ATK. Plus Cookin' Canuck had very kindly inserted visuals into the recipe. Another plus when you aren't sure what you're doing.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to make these hot cross buns. As an added bonus, I finally got to use the dough hook for my KitchenAid mixer. So yes, it was a big night for everyone. The Habs prevailed over Boston and I got to use my dough hook. Win-win.

I stopped short of letting my hot cross buns rise a final (second) time and put them in the fridge, covered, as suggested by the recipe, Saturday evening. Then I got up early (well, early-ish) this morning and let them sit for an hour and a half before finishing them. So we got to enjoy fresh, hot-out-of-the-oven hot cross buns today. While I was waiting for them to rise and bake I ran two miles. Then I came upstairs, glazed the buns and promptly devoured two (yes, deux). So much for exercise. Given my little indiscretion I'd say this recipe produces a very tasty bun.

Several years ago I ripped a recipe out of a magazine for hot cross muffins, which were heralded as 'hot cross buns without all the fuss of working with yeast'. Given my aversion to working with yeast these seemed a good idea at the time. Reflecting on how easy these buns were to make and how good they are I feel I can recycle this particular clipping. This recipe produces hot cross buns that are just a nice size (although perhaps not designed to be eaten in pairs) and they aren't overloaded with 'stuff' - just a few well-placed raisins and lots of fragrant cinnamon. I will definitely be making another batch.

Hot Cross Buns
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen

3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk, well-shaken
1 (0.75 ounce) package (2 1/4 tsp) dried yeast
4 tbsp sugar, divided
3 large eggs
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup currants (or raisins)
1 large egg
1 tbsp water

Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Pour buttermilk into a small saucepan. Heat to approximately 110 degrees F. Pour into a large liquid measuring cup. Stir yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar into the buttermilk. Let the mixture sit until foamy bubbles appear on the surface of the buttermilk, about 10 minutes. Whisk in eggs and the cooled melted butter.

The next part can be done with a stand-mixer or by hand. In the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook, combine 4 cups all-purpose flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Turn the mixer on low for about 10 seconds to mix the ingredients. With the mixer set on low, slowly add the buttermilk mixture. Mix until the ingredients form into a dough. Turn the mixer to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 5 to 7 minutes. The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, mix in more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough reaches the desired consistency.

Turn the dough onto a clean surface and add currants (or raisins). Knead the currants into the dough until they are evenly dispersed. Place the dough into a bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free place until the dough doubles in size, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into 12 pieces. With the palm of your hand, roll each ball to form a ball. Coat a 9- by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Place the 12 balls of dough into the pan. Wrap tightly with greased plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the rolls double in size and are pressed against each other.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with the rack in the middle position.

Using a small, sharp knife, cut a 1/4-inch deep X through the top of each bun. In a small bowl, whisk together egg and water. Brush the tops of the buns with the egg mixture. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the buns are puffed and golden brown. Sit the pan on a cooling rack and let the buns cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

For the glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Using a small spoon, drizzle the glaze over top of the buns in an X, in the grooves on the buns. Serve warm or cool to room temperature.

Make ahead:
Once you place the balls of dough in the baking pan, do not let the dough rise. Instead, store in the refrigerator overnight, up to 16 hours. Before baking, let the buns sit at room temperature until they double in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Makes 12 buns.

Bad Day Bars

2011-04-13T19:09:00.001-04:00

Today was just a bad day. Made worse by the fact that I didn't even realize I was having a bad day until dinner when bad went to worse. That's when I burned my hand on a hot cookie sheet and spilled milk all over the kitchen table and half of my dinner. Only then, on reflection, did I realize I had a horrible terrible no-good very bad day. If one were to play back my day it would be like watching a B-grade horror flick. You'd be yelling at the screen 'No! Not the basement/attic/garage/abandoned house! Don't go in there!'. You'd know I was a goner.

One of the reasons for my horrible terrible no-good very bad day was that I left my big batch of Chocolate Chip-Pretzel Bars at home instead of taking them to work where I had planned to share their wonderful-ness with my lovely colleagues. In spite of my horrible terrible no-good very bad day I have refrained from ripping off the lid and eating the entire batch myself which was my first instinct after the hand-burning milk-spilling incident. I found this recipe in a Food & Wine compilation cookbook I borrowed from the library recently. You can find the recipe online here: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-pretzel-bars. If you're a fan of combining sweet and salty (as I am) you will likely enjoy these bars. My kids said they would be better without the pretzels, leading me to think this particular combination might be more of a grown-up taste. I can't really say what kind of wine might be appropriate to accompany these bars; I had mine with a tall glass of milk. After I cleaned up the spilled milk, over which I did not cry even thought I felt like doing so.

Bad Day Bars (aka Chocolate Chip-Pretzel Bars)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
One 12-ounce bag bittersweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups mini pretzels, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chocolate sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9-by-13-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper, allowing overhang on the 2 long ends.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat the butter with both sugars at medium speed until light, 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. At low speed, beat in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chips and pretzels.

Spread the batter in the pan and top with the sprinkles. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden; the center will still be a little gooey. Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool completely.

Run the tip of a knife around the side of the pan and lift the bar out using the parchment paper. Cut into 24 squares and serve.

Pasta Carbonara Florentine (or, Saturday Night Special)

2011-04-11T21:17:00.000-04:00

Saturday night is my least favourite time to cook. For years, we tended to go out for dinner Saturday night rather than agonize over what to make for dinner. Then the kids came along and we started ordering pizza, seen to be easier than cooking and/or dragging the kids along to a restaurant. Now that our kids are older we could certainly go out if we wanted. Or order pizza. But we seem to have been blessed with children who (a) dislike leaving the house and (b) don't like pizza. Our kids never ask to go out to eat. Would rather stay home and eat alphabet pasta drenched in V8. Or devour a tray of veggies with hummus. True story! Patrick actually reminded me one night last week that I had forgotten to give him his carrots at dinner. My kids are not perfect eaters, to be sure. (I mean, who doesn't like pizza?) And neither are their parents. Because despite being pretty much fully formed, functioning adults together for going on 18 years (good grief!) we still can't agree on Saturday dinner.

Last weekend was a typical Saturday. Despite spending a whack of cash on groceries nothing in the fridge appealed, nor did spending $50 on lackluster take-out. After dismissing any and all of our options I dove back into the fridge for inspiration -

Despite having a decently stocked fridge, as previously noted, nothing appealed. Often we default to breakfast for dinner Saturday night, so I reached for the eggs and some bacon then remembered we had some lovely pasta in the pantry to use up! I started buying rustichella d'bruzzo pasta last year. It was one of those things that I was just going to buy once to make a special dish that has ended up becoming a regular purchase. Pasta + eggs + bacon (+ parmesan cheese) = pasta carbonara.

Truth be told, I first made pasta carbonara because I thought my husband would get a kick out of the name. His favourite Montreal Canadiens player when he was a kid was Guy Carbonneau, which sounds a bit like carbonara. So that's why I first noticed the recipe. I will admit to being a bit skeptical about this dish. Growing up, I was taught to fear the raw egg. Pasta carbonara tosses cooked, hot pasta with raw eggs mixed with some parmesan cheese. But despite my reticence, I tried pasta carbonara and I'm very glad I did. Not only is it delicious, it's dead simple to make and uses ingredients I generally have on hand. Saturday night I also found some spinach in my crisper, hence Pasta Carbonara Florentine:

Pasta Carbonara Florentine

Cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 (6-ounce) package bagged prewashed baby spinach
6 slices center-cut bacon, chopped
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons dry white wine
8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg
1 large egg white
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and spinach; cook 1 minute or until spinach wilts, stirring constantly. Remove spinach from pan; place in a bowl.

Add bacon to pan; cook 3 minutes or until crisp, stirring frequently. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan; set bacon aside. Add onion to drippings in pan; cook 2 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add wine; cook 1 minute or until liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat; keep warm.

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well, reserving 1 tablespoon cooking liquid. Immediately add pasta and the reserved cooking liquid to onion mixture in skillet. Add spinach and bacon; stir well to combine. Place skillet over low heat.

Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, cheese, pepper, egg, and egg white, stirring with a whisk. Add to pasta mixture, tossing well to coat. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

Lines, lines, everywhere lines.

2011-04-06T20:49:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I did something at the grocery store and I can't decide if it was heroic or moronic. Luckily I was alone (i.e. without children) so the only people likely to be judging me were in the immediate vicinity of checkout 12 at Loblaws.

I usually shop for groceries Saturday morning. I like the Saturday morning shop. I get out by 9:30 so I'm home by 11 or so, and while the stores I frequent can be busy they are normally pleasantly so. This Saturday it was a bit busier than usual but I wasn't in any particular hurry. I was unloading my cart onto the conveyor belt when I heard the clerk indicate to the customer two in front of me: "Oh. There's no label on this bread. I'm going to have to get a price check.".

Okay, I think. Whatever. It's a loaf of bread. Not the do-it-yourself, put it in the bag and give it a bin label tag kind of bread. It should have been labelled but was not. Store oversight. She'll call, the bakery person will give her a price and that will be that. I'm not in a hurry. (That's a critical point so let me note it again. I wasn't in a hurry. Was. Not.)

But the bakery person doesn't give a price over the phone, despite what I'll say was a fairly accurate description of the bread product in question by the cashier. She, the bakery person (I assumed it was a she) wants to see the bread product before wagering how much it should cost. Okay, I think. She's being thorough. Although...really? Because, again, I'm not in a hurry, but the lady trying to buy the bread is 80 if she's a day, and she's leaning on her walker at this point, and I would imagine she has just expended a whole days worth of energy coming to the grocery store. She looks tired and done-in. Just give her the bread, I'm thinking. It can't be more than 2 or 3 bucks. She just spent $50 on a tiny amount of food that she's going to struggle home with..Just give her the bread.

So bakery person (it was a she) makes her way to check-out 12. Which takes a while because it's on the opposite side of the store. Glances at the bread and says "Hmmm. I'm going to have to go back and see if I can find another loaf like that before I give you a price.".

Okay. Now I will admit to becoming a wee bit irritated. The cashier is aware that she has a growing line-up. It's officially busy, and she is apologetic to those of us lingering in lane 12 as she asks her colleague to 'please hurry'. (Yeah. I don't see that happening.) So I do something that I normally wouldn't do. I say something. Out loud. "I'll buy the bread. Just give it to her and add it to my order. Please. Don't make her wait any longer."

Here is where I feel bad, because the cashier turns to the person trying to buy the bread and says "That girl (yes, girl) said she'll buy your bread. She's in a hurry.". See - no. I'm not in a hurry. "I'm not in a hurry!" I say. "I just think that you should give her the bread. She's been waiting patiently , it's a store oversight that the bread is unlabelled..and it can't be more than a few bucks.". Now I'm babbling, and the lovely person trying to buy bread is shuffling back to where I'm standing, counting out coins, because she doesn't want me to buy her bread. "That's just not right, dear", she says. And the kicker: "I'm so sorry to make you wait.".

Long story short, the cashier gives the customer the bread. The customer leaves enough to cover the bread any way (but has left well before the bakery person gets back to lane 12 with a very accurate price for said bread). Making my plea to buy the bread seem like the childish offer of an overindulged princess having a tantrum because she couldn't get through the check-out fast enough. Which it honestly wasn't. I was in no hurry. (Did I mention that already?) It was just one of those moments that seem to happen too often in life, where the world has gotten so big that we can't offer a senior citizen a free loaf of bread....instead we make her wait (A good 10 minutes. Although me? Not in a hurry.) apologizing to everyone for something that isn't her fault. So I tried to do what I thought was a good thing but in retrospect, made me feel kind of bad. I'm not suggesting that grocery stores give away merchandise willy-nilly (although if you have to wait more than 5 minutes for a price check, it should be free) but it might be an idea to empower your people to be able to assess the situation and say "Wow. This bread doesn't have price. Looks like it's worth about a dollar, wouldn'cha say?". Surely a cashier who rings through dozens of loaves of bread in a day can gauge how much an average loaf costs and make a judgement call. I'm sure there are a dozen reasons why that's a bad idea, and cases where people 'take advantage' and it ends up hurting the retailers bottom line. And isn't that also a sad commentary on the state of things?

Moral of the story - if I ever find myself running my very own grocery empire I will give free bread to those who find themselves at the cash register with un-priced bread. Promise.

Carrot Soup

2011-04-05T18:17:00.000-04:00

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen on Sundays. Some Sunday nights when I'm drying the last dish or wiping off the counter for the millionth time, and it feels like I've been in the kitchen literally all day, I wonder why I do it. Then, on a random Tuesday night I peek into the fridge looking for something easy for dinner, and there it is: carrot soup.

This carrot soup is a lovely recipe from Cooking Light. I made it a few weeks ago to use up some random carrots in my crisper and it was wonderful. Sweet but a bit spicy, thanks to a pinch of ginger. I only had enough carrots to make a half batch but this past weekend I set out to make enough soup to have on hand through the week. A word about preparing this soup: it doesn't say whether or not you should peel your carrots. I did the first time but did not the second. I prefer the carrots peeled; the second batch was still good but not quite as sweet, with more of an earthy flavour. With some white cheddar and crackers, a very respectable (and quick) weeknight dinner.

Scalloped Potatoes

2011-04-04T17:47:00.002-04:00

I have a thing for scalloped potatoes. I'm not sure why I don't make them more often. I tend to only serve them when I serve ham and baked beans. Which is very stingy of me, because scalloped potatoes are not a one-meal wonder.

I put ketchup on my scalloped potatoes. Is that weird? Don't tell me if it is because I don't care. I've always, as long as I can remember, put ketchup on my scalloped potatoes. When I was little my mum always made her scalloped potatoes in a blue and white round Corning ware bowl. They seemed to take forever to cook. We would watch the entire 'Wonderful World of Disney' program on CBC Sunday afternoon while we waited what felt like an eternity for the potatoes to be ready. Many a Sunday I cursed those potatoes.

My recipe for scalloped potatoes is actually Betty Crocker's recipe. (An honest-to-goodness recipe, not an 'instant potatoes' find at the grocery store.) I've been making this version of scalloped potatoes for years. I think I came across it just after getting married in 1998. Which is so long ago now that I wrote the recipe out on an actual card. With a pen. And filed it in a little box.

Scalloped potatoes aren't particularly complicated. This was the first batch I made using the new mandoline. I like the consistency of the mandoline because each slice cooks evenly, but I must admit I missed the more random results that slicing potatoes with a knife brings to scalloped potatoes. I imagine that years from now my own kids will remember not how they had to wait hours for their potatoes, but how offended they were that mummy dared to serve them something besides mashed potatoes. Funny how a little boy who hates mashed potatoes suddenly loves mashed potatoes when scalloped make an appearance. So here's how we do this:

Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes

3 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 cups milk (heated)
6 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (about 6 cups)
1 tbsp butter

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 quart casserole with cooking spray. In saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat. Slowly add milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Arrange potatoes in casserole dish. Pour sauce evenly over potatoes. Cut 1 tbsp butter into small pieces and sprinkle over potatoes. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Without ketchup, for the purists....

April Fool's Cake

2011-03-31T21:34:00.005-04:00

When I saw a Spaghetti and Meatball Cake featured in Food Network TV magazine last month, I knew I had to try it out. And what better time than April Fool's day to whip up such a fun dessert?

This 'cake' features one boxed cake mix (chocolate), two tubs of vanilla icing, some frozen strawberries and white chocolate. You make two 8 inch round cakes from your mix, then cool. Crumble up one cake and form the crumbs into 'meatballs', which you artistically position on your 'plate', which is the other layer cake iced in plain white icing. Add a drop or two of yellow food colouring to one tub of your icing and mix. I put my tinted icing into a Ziploc bag and then piped the 'noodle' part of the dish. Puree your (thawed) berries in a blender and spoon the sauce around the meatballs. Grate some white cheese (er, chocolate) over top and there you have it - the perfect April Fool's dessert.

Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup

2011-03-28T19:42:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that despite being to Disney World a bajillion times I haven't got the picture I want to illustrate this post! Good think we're going back this year. (Twice)

On Sunday I made Canadian Cheddar Cheese soup - a recipe featured at Le Cellier, the restaurant located at the Canada Pavilion at Epcot, in Walt Disney World. Once upon a time, before we had the boys, David and I went to Disney a few times on our own. One of the best trips we had was on our one year anniversary. It was October 1999, but Disney was already celebrating the Millennium. They had this terrific parade and fireworks show at Epcot that was amazing. It was called Illuminations, Reflections of Earth. I'm listening to the music as I type this because in a happy coincidence, tonight I found a box of old CDs I set aside to import into iTunes like, a year ago. One of the CDs is the soundtrack to the parade/show, which featured these amazing larger than life puppets that danced through the streets of Epcot...I can't begin to do it justice.

David and I went to Epcot when we travelled solo a lot more than we do now when we visit Disney with the kids. They have started to enjoy Epcot more but for them, Magic Kingdom is the place to be. So I tend to associate Epcot more with grown-ups than kids. Although there was that time David took our niece Clara and Daniel on the Maelstrom ride in Epcot. Which isn't an intense ride. Unless you're under five. They got off wide-eyed and just kept saying to each other "That was close".

As for 'grown-up' memories, I do recall that David and I once spent at least an hour inside the (very cramped) red phone booth that's just off to the side of Canada in Epcot. That's the image I really wanted for this post, but I it only exists as a mental picture in my head. We had come to watch the fireworks and a wicked rain storm whipped up. Normally these things pass pretty quickly in Florida so we were lucky we found a fairly comfortable (and dry) place to wait out the weather. I remember thinking that phone booth was nothing like any I had ever seen in Canada. It struck me as more British than Canadian, but I was dry, so why quibble? On that same trip we were also able to take in the fireworks (dry) from a hammock big enough for two at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We had dinner at Le Cellier and I remember being a bit disappointed that we were there on Canadian Thanksgiving but there was no Thanksgiving fare to be had on the menu. I was not disappointed in the soup. I'm positive I had the (famous) Canadian Cheddar Cheese soup that meal but couldn't quite nail down the memory until I tasted my batch this weekend. Oh yes. I remember that taste. How could I forget?

I used Canadian white cheddar (obviously) and Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale for this soup. I served it in small ramekins because it is so rich I can't imagine eating a whole bowl. I've seen this recipe floating around the Internet but none match the recipe that I have, which is from Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs. The Internet version will tell you you need a diced carrot to make this soup. My recipe would disagree. Carrot or no, this is a decadent (and divine) soup. It makes a huge batch, so plan to have leftovers. Or a tummy ache.

Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup

1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
3 celery ribs, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
4 tbsp butter
1 cup flour
2 cups chicken stock
4 cups milk
3/4 pound grated white cheddar cheese
1 tbsp Tabasco sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup warm beer

In 4/5 quart Dutch oven cook bacon, stirring over medium heat about 5 minutes or until lightly browned.

Add the red onion, celery and butter. Saute until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. (I found the best way to get a small dice for the red onion was to use my Mini-Chopper. The celery I could manage by hand.)

Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes over medium heat. Whisk in the chicken stock and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the milk and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Don't boil after you add the milk. Remove from heat and stir in cheese, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauces. When the cheese is melted and the soup is smooth stir in warm beer. If soup too think add some warm milk.

Because no post is complete without a picture, here is one of my favourite Disney shots. Featured are Clara and Daniel (recovered from their close call on Maelstrom) playing with the (highly marked-up) glow-in-the-dark Disney merchandise that comes out whenever fireworks shows are imminent. It's a bit blurry and out of focus but I think that's part of its charm....

Loaf City

2011-03-27T20:17:00.001-04:00

So here we are. It's still March. It's still minus something or other outside. There is still snow on the ground (and in the weather forecast). Personally I won't miss March. It's been more lion than lamb this year and it's felt twice as long as February. At our house we've decided March is the Ohio of months. We drive to Florida once or twice a year and every year we marvel at how big Ohio is....Michigan zips by but Ohio lingers. Kentucky is a wink and a smile, Tennessee a quick wave and Georgia, obviously, is a peach. But Ohio. Ohio is a trial. Kind of like March.

I've been trying to break up the tedium of March (and school lunches) by finding new kinds of loaves to bake. Banana bread is my go-to, but this month I've also thrown in lemon and zucchini apple, just to keep things interesting.

First up, Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf. This loaf has great lemon flavour which Daniel quite liked but Patrick did not. Patrick bemoans mummy trying new kinds of loaves and repeatedly asks me to make 'just banana bread'. I wasn't so sure about the recipe directive to poke holes and pour lemon glaze (lemon juice and icing sugar) over top of this loaf but I'm glad I did. Nothing better than eating a great piece of lemon loaf and then discovering a pocket of lemon glaze in your slice. Care to get up close and personal with some lemon loaf?

I found this loaf recipe on Rose Reisman's website here: http://www.artoflivingwell.ca/recipes/desserts/203-lemon-poppy-seed-loaf.

My next loaf is a Zucchini Apple affair that is moist, moist, moist. I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/breads/zucchini-apple-bread/. Again, an excellent loaf. I used oil versus butter and half of a chopped Empire apple in the batter. Smelled great while it was baking and was enthusiastically received by (most) in the household. Yup, Patrick is still holding out for regular ol' banana bread. Poor kid. He couldn't catch a break this weekend since he went banana-bread-less and I made scalloped potatoes instead of his beloved mashed for Sunday dinner. The horror! (Don't worry - there was chocolate cake. So he didn't suffer too terribly).

Lamb Loin Chops

2011-03-21T16:04:00.011-04:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words what does this one say?

Let me tell you. Hopefully in less than a thousand words.

You know how some women get seduced by a pair of shoes or a great jacket in a store window and before they realize what they've done that pair of shoes / that jacket has followed them home and they are out a few hundred bucks as fast as you can say 'Mastercard please'? That happens to me with meat. And poultry products. (Although in my defense I didn't know I was ordering a fresh organic turkey that time we paid...a lot...for our Christmas turkey. David actually called me after he picked it up to relay how he gave his name, was given his turkey, went to get some bills out of his wallet to pay then realized he had to reach for a card to cover the cost. "Do you know how much fresh organic turkey costs?", he asks me. Well, no, actually but now I do. And yes, it was expensive but also the best Christmas turkey ever, thank you very much.)

People of the jury, I have no good excuse. I was seduced by 8 beautiful, fresh Ontario lamb loin chops in the grocery store on Saturday.

David loves lamb and I don't make it that often and I had a gift card...and so I splurged. Sue me. Cause guess what? I basically did nothing to these chops but season and broil them and they were the best lamb I have ever had. Hands down. Some people might have even picked up their lamb chops and gnawed right down to the bone they were so good. Others might have asked for chicken, but eaten one bite of lamb when the offer of an extra hour of video game time was bartered in exchange for at least trying the lamb. So everyone was happy at Sunday dinner this week.

I rubbed these chops with a combination of cinnamon and salt then broiled them for about 6 minutes a side. Served with David's beloved A1 sauce. The roasted potatoes were also incredible. They are the recipe we had last Thanksgiving (Ina Garten). Since the lamb chops were so plainly presented I thought the potatoes, drenched in olive oil, smothered with garlic and sprinkled with salt and rosemary were entirely appropriate. And they were. All made for a great 'official' Spring meal.

The Orangeman (Smoothie)

2011-03-20T10:38:00.006-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had picked up The Abs Diet cookbook from Men's Health when we were at the Library. This cookbook has a whole section dedicated to smoothies that I couldn't wait to try. My kids love smoothies. I can't remember when I first introduced smoothies into their food routine but my most requested 'recipe' these days involves a cup of yogurt, a banana, a splash of orange juice and a generous helping of (frozen) blueberries.

What I noticed about the smoothie recipes in Abs Diet is that many of them require whey protein powder. I don't know about you, but when I read 'whey protein powder' I immediately conjure up images of body builder types looking to bulk up...in other words, not me. It also conjures up images of those huge buckets of whey powder they sell in health food stores. Can one really go through that much whey powder in a lifetime? Again, not me! I did end up discovering you can get whey protein powder at the Bulk Food store, so I got a small bag to try. I also decided it likely wouldn't hurt to omit the whey powder from the smoothie recipes. From what I have discovered online about whey powder, it isn't necessarily dangerous but it isn't something that you really need if you are already eating a balanced diet. And it isn't recommended for kids.

This morning I managed to finish a 3 mile run. Yesterday I did 2 miles, so I clocked about 8 km over the course of the weekend, which is great for me at this time of year, when I am still running indoors on my treadmill. After I finished my 3 miles I was very hot and very thirsty. I decided to try out The Orangeman, one of the Abs Diet smoothie recipes. It appealed the first time I scanned through the book since it sounded a lot like an Orange Julius. And you know what? It tasted a lot like an Orange Julius. Although it's been years since I've actually had an Orange Julius...so let's say it tasted a lot like what I remember an Orange Julius tasting like...

The Orangeman (a gender-neutral drink)

1 cup 1 percent milk
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
2 tbsp low-fat plain yogurt
1 banana
2 tsp whey powder (optional)
6 ice cubes

Put all of the above in a blender and blend. If your blender is a bit wimpy like mine, crush the ice cubes before you put them in. I put my cubes in a large ziploc bag and beat them with a heavy wooden rolling pin. Seemed to do the trick.

Saturday Sandwich

2011-03-19T17:20:00.009-04:00

I took another look at my New Year's (Food) Resolutions and see that I am progressing quite nicely through my original list. To date I can cross 3 out of 10 dishes off of my list:

1. I made Yukon Potato Stack, a Walt Disney World recipe, with my new mandoline.
2. I made Chinese Orange Beef as part of a Chinese New Year menu.
5. I made Pudding Chomeur for our recent Quebecois potluck.

And now, thanks to today's sandwich effort, I can also cross off 'make something with a fresh avocado' (3).

I am intimidated by avocado. Whenever I am tempted by one in the grocery store I have this conversation in my head that goes something like this:

Mmm. Avocado. I could really go for some avocado.
I wonder how I can tell if it's ripe?
How big should I get? Do I need more than one?
The skin feels tough - do I peel it off?
How am I going to chop this thing? It has a pit, right? How do I get the pit out?

Basically I always talk myself out of avocado. It just seems too complicated. But not today. Today I had a plan.

First I Googled 'how do I cut an avocado?' which is apparently a popular question since there are YouTube video tutorials dedicated to the subject. And a website called http://www.howtocutanavocado.com. Which is where I learned that when selecting an avocado I should select a fruit (yup, it's a fruit) that, when pressed, feels like pressing the end of your nose with your finger. Feels like you're pressing your forehead? Too hard. Feels like you're pressing your cheek? Too soft. Feels like you're pressing your nose? Just right. This, my friends, is why I love the Internet.

Now I must admit I did check out one more website about avocados before blindly trusting howtocutanavocado.com. No offense, howtocutanavocado, it's just that I couldn't verify who created you and how do I know there aren't people in this world who will send unsuspecting folks off to the grocery store to press their nose in search of ripe avocado when they know a ripe avocado feels nothing like a pressed nose? It's a strange world we live in.

The site for the California Avocado Commission has a heap of information about avocados. Their advice re: ripeness? A ripe avocado will be "...firm yet yield to gentle pressure...". Which when you think about it, is really just a more elegant way to say 'Will feel like it does when you gently press on the end of your nose.".

Armed with this knowledge (and wondering how many people would notice me pressing my nose next to the avocados) I made tracks for the grocery store. I wanted to make another great Saturday sandwich and it was going to include fresh slices of avocado. It was the first thing I put in my cart: two of them, on the smallish size and not too hard or too soft. Nose-worthy, you might say. My sandwich seemed to make itself once the avocado was on board. Turkey from the deli. Some bacon for good measure. Mozzarella cheese. Fresh pumpernickel bread, because it smelled so wonderful and was being freshly sliced and bagged when I walked by the bakery.

Once I got home and put away the groceries I started to make my sandwich. From my grocery store bounty I added only mayo and decided to grill my sandwich in my panini press. David was not on board the Avocado Express, so he got a similar sandwich but with apple slices and Russian Mustard. So. The verdict.

Slicing was a breeze. I think my avocado was mostly ripe. Not perfect but darn close. It took a couple of tries to remove the pit but it did come out eventually and fairly cleanly. Then I sliced the avocado into large slices which I then sliced into thinner slices. The outer layer, the 'skin' of the avocado, pulled away very easily once the avocado was sliced. I layered my slices between the turkey, bacon and mozzarella, slathered on the mayo, stuck it into the panini press and ended up with this:

It was a very satisfying sandwich. Next time I'd add some tomato slices. Or mush up the avocado and make a guacamole-like spread to use in place of the mayo. Sliced turkey, real, not deli, would also have been nice. I had some avocado left over which I mushed up with some lemon juice and garlic to have with crackers.

So there you have it. Nearly half-done my Food Resolutions list. I may just expand the list, since I continue to run across recipes that seem to demand my attention.

Vive La France (Cuisine)!

2011-03-15T17:35:00.014-04:00

One of my favourite Family Ties episodes features an exhausted Elise falling asleep at the breakfast table after being up all night trying to 'do it all' - juggling both work and motherhood. "French toast, Elise?" her husband Steven asks. She sleeps. "French toast, Elise?" a bit louder this time. She jerks awake and says "Vive la France!". Gets me every time.

We had another tasty potluck at work this month. While I was a bit worried our theme - Quebecois dishes - might not suit the weather, whaddya know...mother nature dumped more snow on us just to make things suitably festive. Here is a rundown of this month's menu:

Pea Soup
Tourtiere
Baked Beans
Vegetable Terrine
Baked Turnip and Apples
Brie with crackers
Spinach Salad
Maple Granola Brittle
Maple Pudding Chomeur

Nothing like a light lunch to propel you through a Friday afternoon, right? I contributed Pudding Chomeur to the table which roughly translated means "Poor Man's Pudding", referencing the fact that the ingredients used in the dish were generally available during the Depression, when Pudding Chomeur was apparently invented. It's a cinch to make and is lick the plate good. It starts out with a biscuit like layer:

You drench this layer in a combination of maple syrup, water and cornstarch. Which makes your pudding look like this:

Now don't panic. I know it looks bad. But trust me - throw it in the oven and through some kind of culinary magic (or actual, honest to goodness science) the liquid layer will sink to the bottom and your biscuit layer will end up on top. Serve Pudding Chomeur warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some whipped cream and you will be a very, very popular person. I served it without any accompaniments and people still seemed to like me (er - the pudding) just fine. The Pudding Chomeur went so quickly at the potluck I have nothing to show of the actual, honest to goodness final sticky-sweet product. But feast your eyes on these culinary triumphs:

All. So. Good. This time out my favourite was the Maple Granola Bark. R. thought she didn't get the syrup quite hot enough, since the bark was more the consistency of fudge, but you heard no complaints. The details person is D. who made sure we had a Canadian flag table cloth and 'french' flag to decorate the table. Not quite Quebec, but in the spirit of things. And it also allowed me to re-live a Family Ties moment so it's a win-win, right?

Since we fear our menu might influence the weather we're thinking a Mediterranean potluck should be our next effort. We could really use some warm breezes and sunny blue skies around here.

Nemesis Chicken & Rice

2011-03-10T18:39:00.009-05:00

A few years ago I asked David what he wanted me to make him for his birthday dinner. Any dish he wanted, just name it and I'll make it. He thought about it for a while before he finally made his request. I figured he was reliving all of the wonderful things I'd made him over the years, struggling to pick just the right dish from the embarrassment of riches I'd brought to the table. He asked me to make him chicken and rice. I have to admit I was a bit offended.

Chicken and rice is one of the first dishes that routinely appeared on our dinner table after we first got married. I found the recipe on the back of a soup can. So right away you can tell it's a classy dish. (Is that harsh?) I served it so much because it was easy. Boneless chicken breasts, can of soup, some rice...dump it, stir it, stick it in the oven - done. And David loved it. (Obviously.) I made him his chicken and rice but since that birthday dinner I've become a bit obsessed with making chicken and rice 'right'. 'Right' as in without relying on a can of soup to be the featured ingredient of the dish.

Of course, to make any dish 'right' I generally turn to Cook's Illustrated. Imagine my delight after trying (and loving ) Skillet Chicken Pot Pie and Skillet Baked Ziti courtesy of the Complete America's Test Kitchen Cookbook I turn the page to discover Skillet Chicken and Rice. It's. So. On.

This was going to be the week. Tonight was going to be the night. Then things started happening. The 'Check Engine' light came on in my car. So I made plans to get the car serviced. A field trip needed another chaperone. So I stood in the middle of a maple sugar bush in the freezing rain. A class I'm teaching Friday became two classes. Details like making sure I had all of the necessary ingredients to make chicken and rice fell right off my (increasingly crowded) radar.

So despite my best efforts when I went to the pantry tonight I discovered I was missing a few essential ingredients for Skillet Chicken and Rice. I might have had words with myself (in my head) since the chicken was already thawed and the rice measured. The boys expectant. Then my eyes fell to the back of the pantry. Where it sat patiently waiting. A can of Cream of Mushroom soup. Can soup look smug? I swear it looked smug.

I am nothing if not stubborn so at first I resisted the soup. I refused to make 'old reliable' and ventured onto the Internet looking for guidance. What I found: Chicken Breasts on Rice. Featuring not just Cream of Mushroom soup; to make this bad boy I also required dry onion soup powder. Which laughed at me from another shelf of my pantry. I didn't have the required canned mushrooms but I figured it would eat fine without. And it was okay. The rice was gummy and the onion flavour a bit overpowering. The boys seemed to like the chicken which was very moist. And yes, it was pretty darn easy. So 'real' chicken and rice eludes me once again. It would appear I have a nemesis in the kitchen....

Bunting

2011-03-07T16:19:00.007-05:00

No, bunting isn't some trendy new food dish. It's decor-related so pardon my digression from food talk.

I love the website Etsy. I've discovered some really great things on Etsy - handbags, wall art and bunting to name but a few. The bunting purchases have gotten a bit out of hand. I bought my first bunting in November when I was trying to think of how I would jazz up my mantel for Christmas. I came across a posting for bunting made out of some kitschy vintage fabric and had to have it. So I did. And I loved it while it graced my mantle during the holidays:

I loved it so much that when it came down in January I felt the need to replace it. The house feels so bare when you take down holiday decorations; I was vulnerable, Etsy was available. So late one night I found myself purchasing this:

As a general rule I have never decorated for Valentine's Day. So let's not call this a decoration as much as an embellishment. Still, I was sad to see it go. And once again I found myself in a funk. Until I came across this pretty:

Also vintage fabric. The green caught my eye and the orange and pink sealed the deal. And while I'm sure purchasing three different buntings (bunti?) in the space of four months is the sign of some kind of problem, I'm going to go with it. Have I mentioned it's been a long Winter?

Pulled Pork with Ginger-Bourbon Sauce

2011-03-06T18:29:00.005-05:00

Sounds good doesn't it? I've made various versions of pulled pork, usually in the Summer. In a bid to transition from Winter to Spring meals I thought Pulled Pork with Ginger-Bourbon Sauce, from the March 2011 issue of Chatelaine, would make for a nice Sunday dinner. It's made in a slow cooker and is relatively fuss-free, which is nice when you are juggling a bajillion other things on the weekend. The pork smelled wonderful through the day, simmering on low with only some sliced onions and a can of ginger-ale to keep it company. I really liked this method of cooking pork for pulled pork sandwiches. The meat was falling apart by the time we took it out and combined it with the promised Ginger-Bourbon Sauce.

The Ginger-Bourbon Sauce is a combination of apple jelly, ketchup, bourbon, wooster sauce and Tabasco, among other things (ginger and garlic powder). Also very easy to put together. The hardest part of making this sauce was procuring the bourbon. We aren't a bourbon household, so had to make a special visit to the LCBO to get some. I never remember what bourbon is...apparently it's a special kind of whiskey. I think. Jack Daniels was right there at the checkout in a nice little $10 bottle so that's what I bought. Or attempted to buy. I got carded in the process. It was slightly embarrassing but also a bit flattering. Before flashing my ID (that clearly shows I'm well over 19) I really wanted to ask the cashier how old he thought I was. To be fair, I did get a new haircut last week that is pretty short, the shortest I've ever had, and my one reservation (okay - maybe I had a couple of reservations) about going so short was that it would make me look younger. So. Back to the drawing board with the hair.

David loved these sandwiches. Loved as in he ate three of them. The boys were not impressed with my 'yucky' sandwiches and once again ate a 'deconstructed' version with de-sauced meat. Sigh. I liked the sandwiches but found the sauce over-sweet. On reflection I notice that I forgot to put the wooster sauce in...maybe that would have cut some of the sweetness? I served them with coleslaw on top as suggested which definitely gave a nice crunch as well as a bit of a sour contrast. At least they looked nice:

I served these with some Spicy Oven Fries which are a recipe from the New Abs Diet Cookbook. This cookbook happened to be shelved near a DVD on the Titanic that Daniel wanted to get from the Library on Saturday. I don't aspire to have great abs. I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed. And much like the Titanic, it's hit ice and sunk. I grabbed it because it is featured in Men's Health magazine which David likes to read. And some of the recipes sounded interesting. Spicy Oven Fries start with russet potatoes cut into wedges dipped in egg white then sprinkled with a mixture of spices: chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, thyme and salt. Bake for about 35 minutes and done. I actually liked these a lot. Patrick peeled his and ate the 'mashed' part. Daniel slathered his in ketchup. David ate three sandwiches. I think he liked the fries but I forgot to ask.

Spicy Oven Fries

4 russet potatoes, cut lengthwise into 12 wedges
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Dip the cut potatoes in egg to coat and place in a bowl. Mix the remaining ingredients and sprinkle over the potatoes, toss well to coat. Place the wedges on the baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the potatoes over and bake for 15 minutes or until crisp.

Chicken Normande

2011-03-02T17:51:00.011-05:00

While the cold weather is allowing me to enjoy some of my favourite Winter dishes like Chicken Normande with Mashed Apples and Potatoes, I must say I am very tired of this:

And am so looking forward to some of this:

Seriously. It's been Winter for like, 2 years now. Even my kids are over it. I'm tired of my Winter wardrobe and I'm growing tired of Winter dinner dishes. I'd like to start easing into some Spring menus but this weather is less than inspiring. Although the Chicken Normande we had Sunday night was very inspired and in the interests of full disclosure, was actually made by my husband as I was occupied elsewhere. He did a fantastic job. Chicken Normande is kind of like a chicken Shepherd's Pie with the fun (and slightly sweet) addition of apples in the mashed potato topping. I would have taken a picture but I was too depressed by the long range weather forecast to bother. Cold, colder, coldest.

Chicken Normande (from Epicurious)

3 cups chicken broth
1 cup apple cider or apple juice
8 ounces parsnips, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 3/4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 pound Golden Delicious apples (about 2 large), peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
5 tablespoons butter
8 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/3 cup brandy
1/3 cup whipping cream

Combine first 3 ingredients in heavy large pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer until parsnips are tender, about 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer parsnips to small bowl. Add potatoes and apples to same pot. Cover; simmer until very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Using slotted spoon, transfer potatoes and apples to large bowl; add 3 tablespoons butter. Mash until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Pour broth mixture from pot into medium bowl; reserve pot.

Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and 4 teaspoons thyme; dust with flour. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in reserved pot over medium-high heat. Add half of chicken. Sauté until brown and cooked through, turning with tongs, about 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer sautéed chicken to 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Repeat with remaining chicken. Top with parsnips, remaining 2 teaspoons thyme and peas. Return broth mixture to same pot; add brandy and whipping cream. Boil over medium-high heat until sauce is reduced to 1 1/4 cups, scraping up browned bits, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon over chicken. Cover with potato-apple mixture. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake casserole uncovered until potato topping is crusty and chicken filling is heated through, about 35 minutes (about 45 minutes if refrigerated).

On the bright side of things, we have another potluck planned at work and we are indeed going with a Quebecois theme. Expect a full report. I am also thinking about a feast to honour St. Patrick's Day, mostly because we have our very own Patrick and he somehow has gotten it into his head that SPD is about him. Which really, why wouldn't it be?

Daniel and I are also collaborating on a fun meal. He has become a bit obsessed with all things Titanic so when I found "Last Dinner on the Titanic" on a used book site the other day, I snapped it up and suggested he help me with Sunday dinner: Titanic edition. We've already had some discussion on the merits of re-creating certain menu items (we aren't big on the fish course) and I'm trying to figure out how to decorate the table to bring some Titanic-like atmosphere to my dining room. I realize this is kind of a macabre theme for a dinner but I figure he's interested and I'm game so we're going to go for it.

Potluck

2011-02-21T20:18:00.004-05:00

Sometime in late January I suggested we have a potluck lunch at work and boy, am I glad I did. Although the day before the potluck I wasn't so glad; I was wondering why exactly I would suggest a potluck the day before I was hosting 20 JK/SK children at my home for my son's sixth birthday party. But I had offered to bring chili. And since I had made a large batch a few weeks ago and frozen most of it all I really had to do was thaw, heat and serve.

I love potluck lunches. Particularly random potluck lunches like the one we had. There was no list of who was bringing what but it all came together so well. Here is what we had at the table -

Chipotle Dip and Tortilla Chips
Goat Cheese and Crackers
Pasta Salad with Veggies and Feta Cheese
Bacon, Cheddar and Mushroom Squares
Chili (plus toppings - cheese(s), avocado)
Fresh bread and rolls
Dessert - a variety of sweet, sticky squares

We were aiming to heat things up since it has been such a cold (long) Winter and I think we did a great job. The table was decorated apropos our theme of 'heating things up' (no thanks to me, but thanks to another enterprising colleague who happens to have chili pepper lights and a Mexican blanket that doubled as a table cloth). The food all looked and smelled divine. We chatted, we ate, we chatted some more, we ate some more. It was a perfect Friday lunch. The only thing missing is a picture. I thought I had snapped one but my phone died mid-click. Next time there will be pictures because I plan to rally the troops and do it all again soon. We threw around some possible themes - Quebecois food might be our next effort. I do have 'Pudding Chomeur' on my to-do list!

I think that my favourite dish at the potluck was the Bacon, Cheddar and Mushroom squares that M. made. I am waiting patiently for an opportunity to make these again soon. They were divine. The recipe, M. was kind enough to inform me, is from the LCBO Food and Wine magazine. I found it online here. It's an Anna Olson recipe. I'm a fan of Anna but have generally made her sweets. Turns out she is just as good at savoury dishes....

Bacon, Cheddar and Mushroom Squares

Crust
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
2 tsp (10 mL) sugar
¼ cup (50 mL) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (125 mL) coarsely grated medium cheddar cheese

Filling
2 tbsp (25 mL) olive oil
3 tbsp (45 mL) minced shallot
¾ lb (175 g) fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp (5 mL) finely chopped fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 large eggs
¾ cup (175 mL) half-and-half cream
6 slices cooked bacon, coarsely chopped
2 cups (500 mL) coarsely grated medium cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC).

2. Lightly grease and line an 8-inch (20-cm) square pan with parchment paper.

3. For crust, stir flour and sugar to combine. Cut in butter with fingers or a pastry cutter until coarse and crumbly (dough will appear dry). Stir in cheddar cheese and press into prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes and cool to room temperature.

4. For filling, keep oven at 350ºF (180ºC). In a large sauté pan over medium heat add oil, shallots and mushrooms. Sauté until all liquid has evaporated from mushrooms, about 6 minutes, then stir in garlic and thyme and season lightly with salt and pepper. Remove pan from heat to cool.

5. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and cream. Stir in cooled mushroom mixture, chopped cooked bacon and cheddar cheese. Pour filling onto cooled crust and bake for about 30 minutes, until centre of filling no longer jiggles. Cool squares to room temperature, then chill for at least 4 hours before slicing.

6. Squares can be served at room temperature or warmed for 10 minutes at 350ºF (180ºC) in a baking tray.

Makes one 8-inch-square (20-cm) pan, or 25 squares

Signs of Spring

2011-02-21T09:56:00.004-05:00

For one brief shining moment last week, it was Spring. The sky was blue. The breezes were balmy. On the walk to school my youngest son kept asking 'Mummy, what's that smell?'. (Spring, my friend, Spring!) We could see grass peeking through the snow on front yards. It felt so good to leave a few layers at home and walk through the concrete beach at work without being assaulted by gale force winds. Or freezing pellets of snow. Sigh. We all knew it wouldn't last. And it didn't. Today we woke up to fresh snow. But Friday, Friday was beautiful. I hope the memory will hold us until the next Spring thaw.

The small taste of Spring we had has put me in a very green frame of mind. I ordered a new bedspread and stuck with my traditional neutral colours but ended up picking a design with a touch of green. I started adding some Spring touches to my mantel and found a great floral bunting on Etsy that features orange, pink and green. (I seem to have developed an obsession with bunting. More on that later). Then I made some zucchini and carrot bread that I found on a blog called Coconut & Lime. This recipe caught my eye because it included cardamom (along with cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon) in the batter. I bought some cardamom for a cookie I made recently and have a fresh bottle in the pantry. So it felt like fate - appropriately Spring-ish and using ingredients I had on hand. The result was lovely. A cross between spice cake and zucchini bread with the added kick of carrot. Yum.

Birthday Cake

2011-02-13T18:46:00.011-05:00

While I always enjoy the opportunity to make a cake I must admit I don't love cake decorating. Maybe it's because I tend to look before I leap. I'm the type of person who gets an idea and thinks "How hard can that be?" and mid-way through the execution of said idea, I discover just how hard 'it' actually is. Birthday cakes are my baking Achilles heel. They either look good or taste good - rarely both. A brief history of birthday cakes my household has known:

This I made for my son's first birthday. It's a 3-D cake and it doesn't look bad but it was unremarkable in terms of taste. As I recall it was also difficult to serve. Watching your mummy set fire to then dismember a duck doesn't make for a happy first birthday. Next.

This cake was inspired by one I saw on the cover of Gourmet magazine. Remember when 'Dr. Seuss' cakes were all the rage? Featuring funky colours and designs with uneven layers that made it look like your cake was going to slide off the plate? That isn't what I was going for with this effort but that's what I got. This cake is definitely not level. And it wasn't very well iced. As a concept it worked well. The kids all ate a little cupcake and grown-ups had a slice of the cake. Which tasted pretty good. And I like the colour palate. But I was very hung up on how my cake appeared as compared to the cover cake. Which is like comparing myself to Lea Michele on this month's cover of Cosmo. Moving on.

This is the one birthday cake I've made I actually remember fondly. My son was so excited about his Blue's Clues party and requested a Tickety cake. Considering some of the other characters on that show I got off easy. Tickety is a clock. Clocks are round. I can handle a round cake. I was especially proud that I thought to 'set' Tickety for 3 o'clock. For a third birthday cake. I love details!

Despite my Tickety triumph I seem to have retired my birthday cake making skills for several years following its presentation and consumption. Mostly because I discovered a good baker/cake decorator. My youngest son had a beautiful Curious George cake on his first birthday that I had no hand in making. Then there was a fire truck for my older son...also beautiful and nothing to do with me. I made a train cake for my youngest son's second birthday that was rather unremarkable in both looks and taste. What I remember most about that birthday is he woke up with hives that, while insignificant the day of his birthday by the next day had made his eyes swell shut. Good parenting at its finest. (Honestly, it didn't look that bad the day of his birthday...)

The next few years were also uninspired. A Wall-e themed cake was a regular chocolate cake I made and plunked a Wall-e figure on top. Although now that I think about it that cake was actually pretty tasty. It's hard to screw up chocolate cake. My youngest son begged for a Thomas 'cupcake cake' from the grocery store for his next birthday. We also had an ice cream cake for son #1 at some point...that was good but a bugger to serve, despite being thawed in advance. Last year we had an Olympic party for P. since his birthday fell around the time of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I had a cake made for that party with a picture of all the Olympic mascots screened on in icing. Next came the Up-Cakes which were actually kind of inspired but I can't take credit - those were my son's idea.

Which brings us to now. This year P. really wanted a Tangled party and requested very specific cupcakes as shown on the Tangled website. Pascal (the cute little chameleon) cupcakes. I dithered. I delayed. I actually tried to talk him out of it. But he would not be dissuaded. So this weekend I made 24 Pascal cupcakes:

Twelve chocolate, twelve vanilla. All icing courtesy of Duncan Hines (Vanilla). Although I did mix the colours myself. If you check out the link above you will notice that my cupcakes don't look like those pictured. I couldn't find fruit roll-ups for 'moody' Pascal and declared that all of our Pascal's would be happy since they were at a birthday party. This seemed to please P. and all of the angst I felt in decorating these quickly faded when he saw a completed Pascal or two and said: "Oh mommy. You got them just right!" And tonight there are none left. His friends from school came, saw and conquered. And we lived to tell the tale. Happy 6th birthday, P....

Slice, slice, baby...

2011-02-08T17:38:00.007-05:00

Wow. That's possibly the worst title I've come up with so far. And now you have Vanilla Ice stuck in your head. Sorry about that.

I finally got around to cracking open the mandoline I got for Christmas to make a Sunday dinner dish. I actually bought this for myself a couple of weeks before Christmas at the William Ashley Warehouse sale, an event I have never attended before but was introduced to in 2010 thanks to my SIL. Wow. Let's just say the mandoline was one of many purchases I made that day. Kitchen stuff. On sale! See you in 2011 Will!

My mandoline is a Zyliss. I had never used a mandoline before this weekend but I had heard many horror stories of people cutting off fingertips when using these devices, so the first time I used it I sliced some beets as practice. I figured if I cut myself I wouldn't freak out because the blood would just mingle with the beet juice and I'd be none the wiser. Except for the missing digit. Thankfully, the beet experiment went just fine, meaning I didn't cut myself. So I moved on to potatoes.

I love scalloped potatoes. One of my favourite meals in the world is ham, baked beans and scalloped potatoes. I make it once a year, usually in the Spring and my husband makes fun of me because I get so excited about it. True story. As already noted I've never used a mandoline before, having relied on the tried and true method of slicing my potato slices for scalloped potatoes by hand, albeit in thick slices. The slices aren't uniform but they eat good. This week I wanted to make a new-to-me scalloped potato recipe that recommends slicing your potatoes with a mandoline. The recipe comes from a cookbook that D. bought me when he was in Florida on business recently - Chef Mickey: Treasures from the Vault and Delicious New Favourites. It's a version of scalloped potatoes (billed a 'potato stack') that bakes your perfect (thin) potato slices in cream along with Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses. Apparently this dish is served at Disneyland. Makes no difference. It had me at cream. The mandoline had me at the first perfect, uniform, (blood-free) slice.

I do recommend these potatoes. They are cheesy, but not in a stringy, "...wow this french onion soup is cheesy..." kind of way. They have a delicate cheese flavour despite Gruyere being a stronger tasting cheese. And the thin potato slices do pack a punch when stacked up in a casserole dish. You can find the recipe here.

Yukon Potato Stack - With Gruyere and Parmesan Cheeses

5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
8 ounces Parmesan cheese
8 ounces Gruyere cheese
3 cups heavy cream
1 ounce fresh garlic
2 ounces shallots
1/4 ounce olive oil
1 Tbs. kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Method:
Clean and peel both garlic and shallots. Chop small and set aside.

Shred both cheeses, mix together and hold until ready for use. Reserve 3 oz to top the potato stack.

Peel and slice the Yukon potatoes to about 1/16 inch thick. Use a mandolin or food slicer to slice the potatoes since they need to be evenly sliced. Do not rinse or hold potatoes in water because the starch will be washed away. This is the last step before you start the cooking.

Heat a heavy bottom stock pot on the stove, over medium heat. Add olive oil to pan and coat the bottom. Add chopped shallots and cook for 5 min stirring continuously. Add the garlic and continue to sauté until the garlic starts to brown.

Add the cream and all of the potatoes to the pot. Add the salt and pepper. Stir to coat the potatoes and begin to reduce the cream until it begins to thicken, about 10 to 15 min.

Add the cheese to the pot and continue cooking over medium heat until cheese melts. Adjust the salt and pepper to your taste.

Place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the 13x9 in baking pan. Spray with a non-stick pan spray. Add the potato mix to the pan; be sure that the potatoes lat flat and there are no gaps in the mix. Spread the remaining cheese over the top in an even layer. Cover the baking pan with plastic wrap first and then foil.

Cook in a 300 F oven for 2 hours. Check the potatoes by inserting a tooth pick into the mix. If it goes in with out any give, it is done. If you still have give put it back in the oven covered and check it every 10 to 15 min.